On a sunny day in Salford, surrounded by gleaming buildings filled with all the major media companies of the UK, it is easy to forget that MediaCity is only a decade old. Plans to bring the BBC, and a panoply of media businesses to the Salford Quays is one of the big regeneration success stories of the country.

It was a story that attracted Salford City Council's new chief executive, Tom Stannard, long before he took up the helm of the authority. After a career in economic growth, the former corporate director at Wakefield City Council explains: ‘Like lots of people I have been admirer of Salford as a place for a long period of time.'