Greater Manchester was given a public vote of confidence from Whitehall on Tuesday 22 September, when the Transport Secretary used the Making Active Places conference in Manchester to say the city-region is 'setting the benchmark' for active travel. In a Department for Transport speech aimed at campaigners, councils and transport leaders, she praised the Bee Network, argued walking, wheeling and cycling can no longer be treated as an add-on, and announced £104 million for the National Cycle Network. For Northern readers, the main point was clear enough. This was not London talking down to the rest of the country. It was a senior minister pointing north and saying the model already exists here. If government wants cleaner air, safer streets, stronger high streets and better links to buses and trams, Greater Manchester is where it believes the case has already been made.

The speech leaned on personal experience rather than dry policy language. She spoke about learning to ride in Swindon, doing paper rounds on her dad’s road bike, and later cycling across London because a travelcard was out of reach on a temp wage. She also pointed back to her years at City Hall, where she worked with Will Norman on lower speed limits and protected cycle lanes, saying that work remains one of the things she is proudest of. That matters because ministers often talk about cycling as if it is a hobby for the already converted. Her case was different. The thread running through the speech was cost, independence and everyday freedom: getting to work, getting to school, clearing your head, and having a decent option when money is tight. In Northern towns and cities, where transport costs can bite hard and patchy local links still shut people out of jobs, that argument lands.

She was just as firm on what active travel should mean in practice. This, she said, is not a culture war between cars, buses, bikes and pedestrians. It is about building a system where each part works with the next: a safe walk to the bus stop, a clear route through a station, a protected cycle lane that gets someone to work without feeling they are taking a risk. That may sound obvious, but it is a point transport policy has too often missed. Too many schemes are still designed in fragments, with walking and wheeling left until the end, if they appear at all. The Department for Transport’s message in Manchester was that this way of doing things has to stop. Safety, access and good signage are meant to be built in from the start, not patched on later.

The strongest local applause line came when she described the Bee Network as 'devolution’s greatest success story'. She noted that it began life as an active travel plan for Greater Manchester before Andy Burnham pulled the wider transport system under the same banner. That history matters. The Bee Network was not dreamed up as branding. It grew from the simple idea that people will walk, wheel and cycle more if routes are safe, joined-up and easy to use. The numbers she cited were striking: 700 million active travel trips in Greater Manchester last year. According to the speech, places with newly completed safe routes have seen clear increases in use, with Chorlton Cycle Way and Oxford Road named as examples. For the North, that is the real political point. Demand is not missing. In many places, decent provision is.

If there was one thread running through the speech that will please metro mayors and council leaders alike, it was the insistence that power should sit closer to the street. The minister singled out decisions on pavement parking and school streets as the sort of calls that local leaders understand better than Whitehall does. That is a familiar argument in Greater Manchester, but it still matters when it is being made from the Cabinet table. She said that same approach runs through the latest Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy, with delivery led locally by mayors and councils and backed nationally by Active Travel England. Billions are due to be invested in active travel by 2030, and most of that funding, she said, will be devolved. For places outside London that have spent years asking not just for grants but for proper control, that is the line worth watching.

There was also more detail on what ministers want that money to achieve. The government says at least 60 per cent of children should be walking and cycling to school by 2035. It has already struck an agreement with mayors to deliver 3,500 miles of footways, safer crossings and cycle lanes, while pilots on wayfinding are meant to help build a more consistent national network. Alongside that came the day’s headline funding announcement: £104 million to maintain and expand the 12,000-mile National Cycle Network. The Department for Transport said the money will go towards repairs, bridge work, better signage and new routes around the HS2 line. For local authorities and campaigners, that is welcome. But as ever, the test will be what gets built, where it gets built, and how quickly people can see the difference on the ground.

The wider case she made went beyond bikes. She linked active travel to less congestion, healthier residents, busier high streets, safer streets for women and girls, and lower pressure on the NHS. Strip away the conference phrasing and the message was fairly straight: this is not about Lycra or lifestyle branding, but about whether people can move around their own area cheaply, safely and with a bit of dignity. For Greater Manchester, the speech was both praise and pressure. Whitehall is now openly using the Bee Network as proof that devolution can deliver. Readers across the North will welcome that recognition, but they will also know what comes next. If ministers are serious, Manchester cannot be the exception wheeled out on a conference stage. The same powers, patience and long-term backing have to reach other Northern places too.