Andy Burnham’s UK decentralization plan: No 10 North

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Although he has not yet responded to pertinent media questions, Andy Burnham, Britain’s next (unelected) prime minister, is fleshing out his policy goals.

One of his big ideas, unveiled in Manchester last week, is Number 10 North, which would see a number of civil servants currently working in London’s iconic Downing Street move to a new base in the north-west city.

Mr Burnham, who has been mayor of Greater Manchester since 2017, sees this as a real step towards “rewiring” the UK and devolving power from Whitehall in London, where the British government is run, to the regions.

Mr Burnham said last week: “This will be a conduit to redistribute power and resources across the UK.” “It will align all parts of government at national and local levels to agree a long-term economic strategy and help everywhere set new growth ambitions.”

The idea, nicknamed “Munk-a-Lago” by Westminster tramps, has been met with skepticism.

Cynics suggest this simply reflects Mr Burnham’s desire to work from home several days a week and his wife’s reluctance to move to the capital.

Guto Hari, an adviser to former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, said the idea “sounds strangely analogue” in an age of AI and virtual work.

“Rewiring doesn’t start with moving desks. It starts with changing incentives, supporting innovation and making the UK the best place in the world to start, build and grow a business,” Hari added.

Meanwhile, veteran political commentator Andrew Rawnsley wrote in the Observer: “Secularists in Whitehall sigh that the job will be too 24/7 for the Prime Minister to be away from London for frequent ‘off-sites’ subject to the whims of the Avanti West Coast rail service and Wi-Fi.”

Mr Burnham would not be the first prime minister to work outside London. Rishi Sunak, chancellor from 2022 to 2024, is believed to have spent most of Friday working from the Treasury’s new offices in Darlington, County Durham, but did not advertise that fact for security reasons.

But “No. 10 North” is emblematic of what Burnham sees as a broader distribution of power and decision-making in one of the developed world’s most centralized countries.

According to the OECD, local authorities collected just 5% of all tax revenue in the UK in 2024, compared to 14% in France and 15% in the US, also countries where capitals dominate the economy. Critics of the system argue that it creates significant regional inequality.

But Burnham faces a tough sell. The UK’s biggest move towards devolution, creating the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly in 1999, was far from a success.

Scotland was once considered to have the best education system in the world, but since devolution it has steadily fallen in international rankings, particularly in subjects such as mathematics, and health and education outcomes in Wales are significantly worse than England. Both governments have been plagued by scandals on various fronts.

Nor has it captured the public’s imagination from a democratic perspective. Turnout in this year’s Scottish and Welsh parliamentary elections was just over 50%, compared to nearly 60% in the most recent UK parliamentary elections in 2024.

Previous attempts at decentralization in the UK similarly failed to inspire excitement. Turnout in police and crime commissioner elections rarely exceeds 25%, and an attempt to establish local councils in the north-east of England in 2004 was defeated in a referendum.

Mr Burnham’s proposals will be met with resistance from civil servants reluctant to relinquish power, but they will also require significant funding at a time when the British government has little to spare. It’s hard to see how they’ll take off.

— Ian King

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