Andy Burnham is preparing to announce sweeping plans to shift power away from London, outlining a vision he describes as a change in “how Britain is governed.”
The Prime Minister-to-be will deliver a speech on Monday focused on growth, centring on a ten-year plan built around devolution, reindustrialisation, and housebuilding to boost living standards.
Burnham will argue that decision-making must be “pushed to regions and local communities,” replacing the “centralised, top-down model with locally driven economic growth.”
The plans include establishing a “Number 10 in the North,” signalling his intention to physically relocate some government operations away from the capital.
The proposals echo former Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s “levelling up” agenda, which aimed to boost economic performance across northern England and other left-behind regions.
Economists at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research concluded that under-spending on devolution and centralised resource allocation made that earlier policy a “failure.”
Burnham’s push to hand greater powers to local authorities is likely to prove controversial among officials in London, where government functions remain heavily concentrated.
Some bodies that previously relocated out of London, including the Office for National Statistics, which moved to Newport in Wales, have faced difficulties attracting talent and maintaining standards.
The former Manchester mayor, who could enter Number 10 as soon as this summer, is also expected to highlight stark disparities in economic performance between British regions.
London remains one of only two regions in the country running a fiscal surplus, while high welfare spending and sluggish growth elsewhere continue to strain public finances.
The capital also generates a third of all corporation tax receipts for the government, underlining the scale of regional economic imbalance Burnham is seeking to address.
Following his speech, attention across City trading floors and Westminster will shift rapidly to the question of who Burnham will appoint as Chancellor.
Ed Miliband is considered a frontrunner, though Unite trade union boss Sharon Graham has joined economists in warning against his appointment, citing his net zero priorities and perceived lack of focus on economic growth.
Other names in contention for the Treasury role include Wes Streeting, Pat McFadden, and Yvette Cooper, with no clear favourite yet emerging publicly.
Over the weekend, one of Burnham’s senior advisers called for capital gains and inheritance tax hikes, as well as a loosening of the existing fiscal rules.
Former transport secretary Louise Haigh, who led Burnham’s Makerfield campaign and is expected to hold a senior Cabinet position, went further, calling for the Treasury itself to be dismantled into two separate departments.
Writing in left-leaning magazine Renewal, Haigh argued that to “deliver a meaningful economic renewal” for Britain, “a fundamental redesign of the UK tax system is required.”