Andy Burnham to unveil plan to shift power from London to regions

Andy Burnham returned to the House of Commons on June 18 after winning Makerfield by more than 9,000 votes and nearly 55 percent of the vote against Reform UK. On Monday, he used a speech to argue that Britain should move power away from Westminster and toward the regions, turning Greater Manchester’s devolution model into a national blueprint.

Burnham is pushing for regional mayors and bodies such as the Greater Manchester Combined Authority to take control of transport, skills, employment support, planning, regeneration, policing and fire services, with the 2023 Greater Manchester trailblazer deal already adding deeper powers over housing, trade, investment and business support. In practice, that would shift decisions on buses, training, site development and local investment away from Whitehall departments and into city-regional institutions closer to the places affected.

Official spending data put London at £138 billion of identifiable public spending in 2024-25, or 14 percent of the UK total, while the North West accounted for 11 percent. ONS regional GDP figures show the same pattern, and Harvard analysis places the UK among the most regionally unequal advanced economies, with the gap driven in part by deindustrialization and the rise of finance and business services.

He won a third term as Greater Manchester mayor in May 2024 with 63 percent of the vote. Greater Manchester’s mayoralty itself was created through English devolution, and Burnham argues that transport, housing and skills decisions are better made at regional level than from London.

The new pitch is a 10-year mission focused on living standards, reindustrialisation, housing, infrastructure and utility reform, with allies floating the idea of a North of England policy hub, No 10 North.