Manchester’s community of professional advisers has grown even faster than the rest of its economy in the past 15 years. There was a time when many business owners would cross the Pennines to Leeds for funding or advice, where big building societies had spawned a large sector. Not any more.

“We went through the last recession [1990-2] in awe of Leeds and Bradford who came through it quite strong,” says Michael Shaw, managing partner of Manchester-based Cobbetts, the law firm. “With typical Mancunian pragmatism we decided to build a financial services sector here.”