The World Health Organization has recognised Greater Manchester as the UK’s first age-friendly city region. To mark the achievement, Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, has today  launched his age-friendly strategy and joined GreaterSport to celebrate the securing of £1m funding from Sport England to encourage older people to be more physically and socially active.

The strategy sets out a number of “we will” statements designed to “create an age-friendly Greater Manchester where ageing and life experience are valued, and older people are able to contribute to and benefit from sustained prosperity and enjoy a good quality of life”.  An implementation plan for delivering the strategy will be published in the next few months.

A press release issued for the age-friendly strategy launch refers to Ambition for Ageing's Greater Manchester’s Festival of Ageing which is taking place 2-15 July 2018. The first of its kind to run in Manchester, this event will portray a more positive view of ageing and encourage policy-makers to take the action needed to improve the lives of Greater Manchester’s 907,000 older people – a figure set to rise to 1.1 million in the next twenty years.