Burnham to open Manchester office for English devolution plan

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham is due to open a new northern office in Manchester on 24 July as part of his plan to shift more decision-making power away from London and support economic growth in England.

Burnham, who replaced Keir Starmer in 10 Downing Street earlier in the week, has called the office “No 10 North”. In a statement issued late Thursday, he said power and resources had been drawn into the centre for 40 years and that many communities had felt forgotten. He said the new office would give more power to people locally so they could act on local problems.

Burnham plans to work from the Manchester office at least one day a week. His office has described it as a “situation room for growth”. He has argued that Greater Manchester, where he was previously mayor for nine years, can be a model for other areas because the city-region has performed better than Britain as a whole in several areas, including economic growth.

Some devolution experts questioned whether the new office amounts to devolution. Alan Trench, an academic and policy adviser, told AFP that the move was better described as “de-concentration”, meaning a relocation of central government activity rather than a transfer of power. He said such moves may shift public sector jobs and the incomes attached to them, but do not by themselves transfer authority.

The United Kingdom created devolved parliaments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in constitutional reforms in the late 1990s, while London gained an elected mayor and assembly. Experts cited in the report said England has remained highly centralised despite the later creation of some regional mayors and other bodies. Trench said no part of England has devolved law-making power. Nicola McEwen, a University of Glasgow professor, said English devolution had been very uneven and had been held back by London treating it as something that happens elsewhere.

Burnham has ordered departments, including the finance ministry, to make targeted transfers of strategic functions to No 10 North, according to a minister who spoke in parliament this week. The office will be part of a new Office for the Prime Minister and the Cabinet, led by civil service chief Antonia Romeo, who is based in London.

Burnham will also re-establish the National Economic Council, which was first created in 2008 during the global financial crisis. His office said he would chair its first meeting at No 10 North on Friday with senior ministers and regional mayors.

McEwen said giving No 10 North a strategic role was positive, but said it would need to work with devolved institutions and also ensure Whitehall adapted to the plan. Trench said an office like the new prime ministerial and cabinet body was badly needed and overdue.

Michael Keating, a University of Aberdeen politics professor, said it was ironic that the response to centralisation was to create another central government department to decide who gets what. He said real devolution would mean allowing local institutions to act for themselves, and warned that any attempt to create a counterweight to the Treasury was likely to fail because the Treasury would not give up control of spending.

Others noted that moving civil servants outside London is not new, with existing government hubs in Glasgow, Sheffield and Darlington. Burnham’s spokesman acknowledged this week that about 80,000 government staff already work in northwest England.

Burnham met the nationalist leaders of Scotland and Wales during a visit to Scotland on Thursday. He has said little about further devolution beyond ruling out support for independence referendums. Scotland voted to remain in the UK in 2014, but the Scottish National Party is seeking another vote. Wales has not held an independence referendum, but the pro-independence Plaid Cymru party won elections there in May.