Inside the plan to woo international investors with Old Trafford redevelopment

The planned redevelopment of Old Trafford will be centre stage as Manchester tries to woo international investors next year.

The regeneration plans for the football stadium and its surrounding area will be among the projects flaunted at MIPIM, an annual global property summit in the French Riviera. It comes as Manchester's delegation to the conference in Cannes reveals its line-up.

Launching the city's programme for the international event in March, Manchester council leader Bev Craig said high-profile projects, such as the redevelopment of Old Trafford, will be promoted. She said: "There’s so much to be proud about – so much to shout about.

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"It feels like we’ve got ourselves into a really good place." She added: “It’s important that we don’t let people take our edge from us.”

The Manchester Invest Partnership, which will be leading the MIPIM delegation again, has already confirmed 11 panel sessions that it will be hosting at the global summit which sees thousands of developers and investors gather for days of debate and discussion. The sessions' topics include the Old Trafford regeneration and the need to transform the city’s edges, as well as transport and devolution.

Speaking at Versa Studios in Manchester, where the programme was launched, Coun Craig hailed the "consistency of vision and narrative” across Greater Manchester, BusinessLive reports. She said the new government is committed to regional development – which could help Manchester compete with other large European cities, telling the audience, “We’re not losing out to Leeds and Liverpool. We’re losing out to Saxony and Lyon.”

And she said that Greater Manchester should not rest on its laurels just because high-profile developments have already taken place in the region. Instead, she said, it should look ahead to promote other high-profile projects, such as the Old Trafford regeneration.

Victoria Braddock, managing director of Marketing Manchester, opened the event by declaring that Manchester would be promoting itself as “the” UK growth opportunity at MIPIM. She then introduced the main speakers of the night - and joked “in true MIPIM style, this will be done as a panel”.

Host Abiola Ogunsami, graduate development manager at Muse and ambassador for Regeneration Brainery, asked panellists including Coun Craig what they were expecting from this year’s MIPIM. Caroline Simpson, group chief executive of Greater Manchester Combined Authority, said: “We really stand together as Manchester and as Greater Manchester. “

Stuart Rogers, North West director of project management at developer Muse, said MIPIM provided attendees with great access to people from property and beyond, allowing for a range of open conversations it might take weeks or months to arrange at home. He said: “You could never write it down on a piece of paper before you go.”

Mr Rogers added: “We have conversations at MIPIM that you just wouldn’t have in this country because you wouldn’t have the time.”

He said those conversations rippled through the week and helped to promote Greater Manchester’s success story. And speaking of Manchester’s success, he said: “People in Europe hear it. People in North America hear it.”

The panellists all stressed that redevelopment and regeneration should not just be about shiny towers – it should be about improving the lives of residents across the cities, towns and boroughs of Greater Manchester. Coun Craig said that deprivation remained a challenge in the city of Manchester despite its high-profile clusters of skyscrapers.

She highlighted the council’s work in Collyhurst and Wythenshawe as examples of the authority working to help all its residents - and said “people forget that we have towns within the city”. She also mentioned other key regeneration areas including around Strangeways.

Mr Rogers said the true success of MIPIM would be “taking the success of the city back to the towns”.