Greater Manchester revealed as burgeoning hub for longevity industry

Analysis by the city-region’s inward investment agency, MIDAS, has shown the scale and diversity of the emerging longevity industry in Greater Manchester.

MIDAS study found that one in four of the UK companies in the sector, which encompasses digital and technological innovation to support ageing populations, has a base within Greater Manchester. Greater Manchester was declared the UK’s first age friendly city in 2010 by the World Health Organisation, and MIDAS research has found a subsequent surge in longevity companies in the city-region. 237 Greater Manchester based companies are developing products, services and tech to support older generations.

Dmitry Kaminskiy, Founder of Aging Analytics Agency which led the research, said:

“We have seen huge growth in the longevity community over the past three years. The thriving healthy ageing industry in Manchester reflects the traction of advancements in longevity in the UK – with the Greater Manchester region alone now accounting for almost the same number of entities we tracked across the whole country back in 2018.”

One of the companies that has developed strong roots in the city-region is Safe Steps – a digital care homes risk assessment tool, which has been rolled out across 332 care homes in Greater Manchester. Lee Omar, Founder of Safe Steps, started the company after his grandfather had a serious fall; he said:

“The collaborative environment has allowed us to co-design, test and trial our product and roll it out at scale across Greater Manchester. Our unique commercial partnership with Health Innovation Manchester has been instrumental for scale up and adoption of Safe Steps.  This has had a huge impact on older people and eased pressure on services. For us as a company it’s been extremely rewarding working within the progressive health tech business environment. It is a great place to scale up your healthy ageing business in the UK.”

Tim Newns, CEO of MIDAS, the inward investment agency for Manchester, who commissioned the study and helps businesses who are developing a base or expanding in the region, said:

“The innovation happening here in Manchester is supporting our own longevity economy, as well as developing innovation that’s playing an important role nationally and supporting ageing populations around the world.”

Amanda Halford, Greater Manchester Local Enterprise Partnership (GM LEP) lead for Health Innovation, said:

“Greater Manchester is proud to be home to researchers and businesses doing some of the most ground-breaking work in the field of healthy ageing. Studies like this one reflect how our city-region’s strengths in health and digital are becoming increasingly complementary. We’re ready to support the next wave of innovation that will help people everywhere lead healthy, active and independent lives.”