Burnham promises 'biggest rebalancing of power' Britain had ever seen
by Paul Godfrey · UPIJune 29 (UPI) -- Labour Member of Parliament, Andy Burnham, tipped to replace Keir Starmer as prime minister, pledged Monday to decentralize government and build an efficient state with a "laser-like focus on growth and regeneration," all while adhering to strict existing rules on borrowing and other election promises made by his party.
Delivering his first policy speech ahead of becoming leader of the ruling Labour Party, and therefore prime minister, expected on July 20 provided that no rival emerges in the meantime, Burnham said he would establish a "No. 10 North," a parallel power center outside London for the first time ever.
Calling it "the nerve centre of a rewired Britain," he said the aim of the new No. 10 operation in his home area of Manchester would be to make "power flow" around the country, calling the move "the biggest change in our lifetimes to the way the country is run."
He said the change would afford "new opportunities to extend devolution in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland by taking power deeper down.
He promised what he called "the days of Whitehall fighting the devolution of power into the regions and nations" -- something he said he had experienced himself during his nine years as Mayor of Greater Manchester -- were gone for good.
Burnham said No. 10 North would be tasked with delivering equivalent living standards across the country over the coming decade and replicating the place-based partnerships he pioneered in Manchester.
The key to raising living standards would be, he said, to help the regions reform essential utilities and services in their areas as well as re-industrialization and regeneration.
"We will create a more streamlined state with a clearer purpose to power up all parts of the country and put a laser-like focus on growth and regeneration, good growth" in every zip code, he said.
"But here's the important thing; it will only be based here. The job of No. 10 North will be to make power flow into the Midlands, into the South West, into the East of England and yes, into London," said Burnham.
Currently over 90% of the U.K. tax take goes straight to His Majesty's Treasury, making it one of the most centralized systems of any advanced economy, despite OECD data showing wage levels across its 34 member countries are in inverse proportion to the level of control given to regions and localities.
Asking people to picture living in a country "wired to work for ordinary people, he made a series of promises on issues from getting more from every defense dollar and reducing the welfare bill in a "fair" way to housing, education and cost-of-living pressures which he vowed to tackle with direct, immediate help to provide people with some "breathing space."
On housing, he also pledged to address the shortage of affordable homes with the largest public housing-building program since the reconstruction following World War II.
The Institute for Government think tank welcomed what it called "the direction of travel" regarding devolution, but said that it was waiting on "a huge amount more detail," to more fully understand Burnham's blueprint.
Akash Paun, head of the organization's devolution program, said Burnham was "raising the expectations" of something fundamentally different to anything that had been seen before in the United Kingdom.
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Troops in landing craft approach Omaha Beach on D-Day in Normandy, France, on June 6, 1944. D-Day was the largest seaborne invasion in history and turned the tide of World War II. Photo by UPI | License Photo