UK PM Burnham opens Manchester base to shift economic power
Prime Minister Andy Burnham is opening a northern branch of Downing Street in Manchester to shift strategic economic decision-making away from London, a move that could reshape how regional growth and business investment are managed in the UK.
Andy Burnham will spend his first day as prime minister working from Manchester at the newly established "No 10 North", marking a deliberate attempt to restructure how the United Kingdom manages its economy.
The facility will pull strategic decisions on devolution and local growth out of traditional London strongholds, specifically the Treasury, now led by John Healey, and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. On Friday, Burnham will chair a meeting of the National Economic Council from the site before holding talks with major business groups, including the Confederation of British Industry and the British Chambers of Commerce. The goal is to align civil servants, regional mayors and corporate leaders on a unified strategy to generate local growth and attract private investment.
For European observers, the move mirrors broader continental efforts to counter the gravitational pull of capital cities and stimulate secondary economic hubs. "For 40 years, power and resources have been sucked into the centre, and too many communities have felt forgotten, without the attention and investment they deserve," Burnham said. "The days of Whitehall resisting devolution are over, for good."
The operational reality of this decentralisation will take years to materialise. The temporary base is Heron House in central Manchester, while a permanent site in the Ancoats district is not expected to open until 2032. Ministers Lucy Powell, Louise Haigh and Angela Rayner will regularly work from the hub. Up to 300 civil servants are expected to join them by the end of next year, aided by relocation packages, as the government pursues a target to cut 12,000 roles from London.
This push to redistribute the civil service faces clear demographic challenges. While the overall share of officials based in London has steadily fallen to 19.6% over the past four years, seniority remains heavily concentrated in the capital. Just 13.5% of senior civil servants work outside London, compared to 34.7% within it.
The economic focus of the new administration has so far centred on targeted relief rather than systemic reform. Burnham's first week included a 20% business rates cut for pubs, social clubs and live music venues starting next April. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has criticised this approach as insufficient for the scale of the office.
"When you are mayor of Manchester, you are handed a big pot of someone else's money, and you decide where to spend it," she said. "Andy Burnham needs to do better. He is behaving like he's still the mayor of Manchester. He is now the prime minister of the United Kingdom, he needs to start acting like it."
