Made by China: How Chinese building firms are winning the biggest deals in the North

'If you’re putting hundreds of billions, if not trillions in investment in different parts of the world, you would want your own companies to benefit from it'

Good morning members — we got a great response to yesterday’s story about rewilding a council estate in South Manchester. If you missed that, you can read it here.

A few members requested that we make it a public story, allowing the great idea to spread, so we unlocked it last night. We do this once in a while if you tell us you particularly want to share a specific story with your networks, and it works really well for this one, which is all about inspiring others to rewild their gardens.

Today’s story takes on a very different subject matter. Jacklin Kwan has been looking at why building firms from China are winning so many giant deals in Greater Manchester, and how that trend fits into Chinese foreign policy. That’s below.

Mill HQ update: Our office moving day was a success yesterday. We have some second-hand desks, a cafetière and even a sofa in our little meeting room for when we start welcoming visitors. It will be lovely for members to be able to come in and talk to us about pr…