Yes, Manchester is an excellent model to look at and shows it can be done. Some fantastic areas in the city and large infrastructure plans (stadiums to rail) which will no doubt support productivity levels in the region.

We already know how to do it all as a country - autonomous light rail, placemaking/ regeneration, connectivity, governance etc - we just have failed to ever do any of it more than once.

I've noticed similar trends re: where people move vs where they're from. A lot of my generation (currently 28-40yo range) were brought up with a 'it's grim up north' mentality and it still persists today. I'm hoping the next generations that make their first visits to alternate cities in the future don't feel the same thanks to the massive improvements seen over the past 10 years.