UK Labour hopeful Andy Burnman proposes 10-year plan to decentralise power and boost regional growth
Select a version of the text written from a presumed ideological perspective. This is not the original text, but a hypothetical version — how someone with that viewpoint might have phrased it. Tapping the current version again will return to the original or select cleaned version.
Andy Burnman, the leading candidate to replace Prime Minister Keir Starmer, outlined a decade-long strategy to shift authority to local leaders, create a “No. 10 North” office in Manchester and invest in transport, housing and industry.
Andy Burnman, the frontrunner to succeed Prime Minister Keir Starmer, said on Monday that his government would devolve significant powers to local authorities and relocate part of the prime minister’s office to Manchester. In a speech at the People’s History Museum, he described the move as the “biggest rebalancing of power our country has seen” and pledged a ten-year plan aimed at “good growth in every postcode.”
Burnman argued that economic growth must be nurtured from the bottom up, proposing a model he called “Manchesterism” that would combine public and private investment in transport, housing and infrastructure, create new industrial jobs and reform water and energy utilities. He announced the creation of a new regional hub, dubbed “No. 10 North,” which would oversee development and give regional mayors greater control over housing, welfare and education.
The proposal received commentary from the Institute for Public Policy Research, whose executive director Harry Quilter-Pinner said the UK’s concentration of power in Westminster has hindered growth and that the “real test now is delivery.” University of Sheffield politics professor Matthew Flinders warned that scaling the Manchester approach nationally would require a “fundamental shift” away from a traditionally centralized political model.
Burnman, who was elected to Parliament on June 18 and sworn in on June 22, is currently unopposed in the Labour leadership contest and could become prime minister by July 20. He inherits challenges cited by his predecessor, including a sluggish economy, strained public services and pressure to increase defence spending under NATO commitments.
“Andy Burnman’s big idea is to shuffle power between politicians,” said Conservative Party chairman Kevin Hollinrake, adding that the plan does not address welfare reform, tax cuts or defence funding.
The speech offered few details on financing the proposed initiatives, and Burnman declined to take questions from journalists.