UK mayors set for bigger role in national policy decisions

Regional mayors are set to play key roles in UK policy decisions under No 10 North, with Andy Burnham positioning the Manchester-based office as a direct challenge to Westminster control. Burnham has called it the “biggest rebalancing of power our country has ever seen” and said the project should be “an engine for growth throughout the whole UK.”

The practical test is how much authority follows the rhetoric. The Greater Manchester Combined Authority describes its mayor as the directly elected leader of Greater Manchester, and Burnham’s proposed No 10 North would sit on a brownfield site on the edge of Manchester, in Ancoats. If the plan goes beyond symbolism, it could pull mayors from city regions such as Greater Manchester, the West Midlands and the North East into decisions on transport, housing, skills and investment, rather than leaving them as consultees after the fact.

That would build on a devolution system already in motion. The Institute for Government said in a 2023 explainer that devolution deals had transferred control of budgets and functions including transport, skills, housing and planning from central government to metro mayors and combined authorities, and said five new mayors were due to be elected in 2024 in the East Midlands, North East, York and North Yorkshire, Suffolk and Norfolk. A House of Commons briefing on English devolution says the government’s white paper proposes changes to the governance of mayoral authorities, a sign that Whitehall is already rewriting the machinery around local power.

The push also reflects a broader policy argument inside Labour circles. A Labour thinktank recommended in 2024 that mayors be given major new powers and put at the forefront of delivering improvements in public sector areas such as health and education. Ministers later considered giving mayors control of schools and hospitals in a devolution shake-up, which would move English regional leaders from economic coordination into some of the state’s most sensitive services.

Local growth plans are already showing what that wider role could look like. The North East Combined Authority’s Local Growth Plan 2025-2035, led by Kim McGuinness, sets missions for a growing economy, the green energy revolution, global trade, real opportunity and pride in the North East. Liverpool City Region’s growth plan aims to add £10bn to the local economy and create tens of thousands of jobs. Centre for Cities, whose metro mayor FAQs were first published in February 2024 and updated in June 2026, says metro mayors are becoming more important as devolution deepens.

That leaves the central question intact: whether No 10 North becomes a formal channel for regional leaders to shape national policy, or a new label for managed consultation from Westminster.