Updated ,first published
London: Labour MP Andy Burnham has promised a “10-year mission” to raise living standards if he becomes Britain’s prime minister within weeks, declaring he wants to rebuild industry and revive the regions by giving more power to mayors across the country.
Burnham declared that the political system was “broken” after years of falling household wealth and political turmoil, and vowed to be a “circuit-breaker” who could turn the country around.
But his promises, set out in a major speech delivered a week after Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he would step down, drew swift criticism for lacking detail on how they would operate and how they would lift economic growth.
In one policy hint, he suggested local councils could set up “growth funds” with billions of dollars to invest in their local areas – an idea that might lead to more local debt at a time when the national government faces limits on its ability to borrow.
Burnham, who has spent the past nine years as mayor of Greater Manchester, set out broad themes in the speech but said specific decisions, and the appointment of cabinet ministers, would wait until after the leadership was resolved.
“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,” he said.
This would mean reforming essential utilities to restore public ownership, he said, as well as government measures to “reindustrialise” the economy after years of losing manufacturing jobs.
“We need to safeguard sovereign manufacturing and production capability across the country in critical sectors like steel, defence, energy, food and farming,” he said.
“Rather than just being prepared to let it go, as we have sadly done in the past.”
Burnham warned about the need to increase the number of apprentices and said the education system had to be overhauled so that trades were considered as worthy as university degrees.
In an important acknowledgement of the policy challenge of moving young people off welfare and into work, he hinted at reforms to social security payments without any firm commitment.
“People have argued over many years for an education system based on parity between academic and technical, and that is what we will build, giving every young person growing up here a clear path into a re-industrialised Britain,” he said.
“Where young people need mental health support, it should be provided as part of in-work support.”
The idea of giving more power to local government is not new, given similar language from then-prime minister Boris Johnson in a plan known as “levelling up” in 2021, when he said local authorities would have more scope to make decisions.
Burnham, however, captured attention with a related pledge to shift some of the powers of the prime minister’s office in Number 10 Downing Street in London – near the major public service departments around Whitehall – so that a new unit of government would be responsible for northern England and other areas outside the capital.
“We will bring about the biggest rebalancing of power, our country has seen it is time for Whitehall to accept that growth cannot be ordered from the top down,” he said.
“Instead, it can only be nurtured from the bottom up. It comes from having the power at ground level to make a real difference.”
Burnham called his proposed new office “Number 10 North” and the phrase dominated media coverage of his speech, although he did not outline any details on how it would work.
“We will consolidate public and private investment at a place-based level and help all areas establish Good Growth Funds, as we have done here in Greater Manchester,” he said.
The Good Growth Fund set up during his time as mayor has drawn on investment from the Greater Manchester Pension Fund and borrowing against future growth in local government business rates. The fund has nearly £2 billion ($3.9 billion) to invest.
Burnham named housing as a priority and promised more construction, but did not say if this would be financed by Good Growth funds or some other source of cash.
“Britain’s housing crisis is having a ruinous impact on its public finances,” he said.
“So, working with local areas, Number 10 North will oversee the biggest council house building program since the postwar period. We will use public land, vacant public land, to reduce costs.”
Raising local funds to be overseen by council leaders might be a way to ease pressure on Westminster to raise funds for investment in local areas. Britain has about £2.8 trillionin public sector debt and is posting annual budget deficits, limiting its ability to borrow more.
Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch mocked Burnham for taking too long to set out detailed policies when the UK had to deal with war in Ukraine, war in Iran, a slow economy, large public debt and high energy prices.
“Andy Burnham is already the prime minister in everything but name. He needs to act like a leader, put an end to speculation, walk into Number 10, name his cabinet and come to parliament to tell the country what he plans to do,” she said.
“Whether Andy Burnham likes it or not, Britain is facing a harsh economic reality. Our national debt is nearly 100 per cent of GDP, our credit card is maxed out. We are spending more on debt interest alone than we do on defence.
“Any signal that Andy Burnham intends to borrow even more money will instantly mean higher borrowing costs.”
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage argued that the devolution of power to regions and councils had not generated results in the past.
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David Crowe is Europe correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X or email.