{"id":707896,"date":"2026-07-23T23:34:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-23T23:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/707896\/"},"modified":"2026-07-23T23:34:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-23T23:34:12","slug":"regional-mayors-to-take-key-roles-in-uk-policy-decisions-as-part-of-no-10-north-plans-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/707896\/","title":{"rendered":"Regional mayors to take key roles in UK policy decisions as part of No 10 North plans | Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Regional mayors are to be given a leading role in the UK\u2019s economic policy, Andy Burnham<\/a> has said, as he called the opening of No 10 North \u201cthe biggest rebalancing of power our country has seen\u201d.<\/p>\n

The new prime minister has revived the national economic council [NEC], first set up by Gordon Brown<\/a> to put the government on a war footing during the 2008 financial crash, arguing that economic growth requires the same level of urgency, focus and collective action.<\/p>\n

In an article for the Guardian<\/a>, he wrote: \u201cWhen I entered Downing Street, I told staff that the era of fighting devolution is over. No one in government loses when power is shared.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burnham will chair the inaugural meeting of the council on Friday, bringing together senior ministers and regional mayors to put devolution at the heart of his government\u2019s mission.<\/p>\n

Burnham wrote: \u201cEven though Whitehall departments have set up outposts, decision-making power has remained in London \u2026 This is what No 10 North is seeking to correct and, if we succeed, it could bring the much-needed sea change in the way Britain is run.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is about driving growth from the most powerful office in the land and doing so in close alignment with the Treasury. It is about taking power down and placing it in the hands of people who can use it best.\u201d<\/p>\n

Heron House, in central Manchester, will provide an interim HQ for Andy Burnham\u2019s No 10 North. Photograph: Peter Byrne\/PA<\/p>\n

As he becomes the first British leader to run the government on a weekly basis from Manchester<\/a>, Burnham will face calls to prove that the operation is not tokenistic.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, he created a powerful new prime minister\u2019s department taking in parts of the Cabinet Office, Treasury and housing ministry to become the \u201cdominant driver of the UK\u2019s economy\u201d \u2013 an apparent tension with the No 10 North plan.<\/p>\n

In one of his first acts, Burnham set up the Office for the Prime Minister and the Cabinet<\/a>, to be led by his ally and enforcer Louise Haigh<\/a>, which will oversee No 10 North in Manchester, the No 10 operation in London, and parts of the Cabinet Office.<\/p>\n

Haigh, along with the education secretary, Lucy Powell, and the communities secretary, Angela Rayner \u2013 who both have Greater Manchester<\/a> seats \u2013 are planning to spend some of their time working from No 10 North, while teams of civil servants are expected to be relocated there.<\/p>\n

With regional mayors invited to sit round the table, Downing Street argues that devolution will be cemented at the centre of economic decision-making, maintaining the prime minister\u2019s pledge that decisions will be taken with local leaders, not just for them.<\/p>\n

Angela Rayner has returned to her previous role as the housing and communities secretary in Burnham\u2019s cabinet. Photograph: Tolga Akmen\/EPA<\/p>\n

Operating from Heron House in Manchester\u2019s city centre, the home of GCHQ in the north-west, No 10 North is intended to bring together the levers of local economic growth and devolution under one roof for the first time, working from a single plan rather than competing ones.<\/p>\n

Burnham is expected to work from No 10 North each week so that decisions about the country\u2019s economic future will no longer exclusively be made in Westminster, with other ministers also working regularly from the building.<\/p>\n

Dave Penman, the general secretary of the FDA union which represents senior civil servants, has welcomed the changes to the structure of government but cautioned that relocation was a big decision for staff.<\/p>\n

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At least seven Greater Manchester Combined Authority employees, including Burnham\u2019s deputy chief of staff, Caroline Simpson, and longstanding aide Kevin Lee, are already moving into the temporary building, while a brownfield site is developed. The Heron House office will be led by Sam Lister, a senior civil servant who has worked across several departments.<\/p>\n

The NEC\u2019s attenders will change at each meeting, depending on the issues under consideration, bringing together business leaders, trade unions and other partners where their expertise can help drive decision-making.<\/p>\n

Under Gordon Brown, the body met twice a week and acted as the focus of his government\u2019s effort to stave off recession, the global crisis in the financial markets and volatile prices, although there were concerns at the time that it could clip the wings of the Treasury.<\/p>\n

The new committee was quickly described as an economic version of the Cobra emergency committee. It included key figures such as the then chancellor Alistair Darling and former business secretary Peter Mandelson, and was instrumental in coordinating emergency banking sector bailouts.<\/p>\n

\"GaryGary Lineker calls for Burnham to introduce wealth tax – The Latest<\/p>\n

In his article, Burnham suggested that the Manchester department would be crucial to his aim to \u201cdrive reindustrialisation and growth across every postcode of the UK\u201d.<\/p>\n

He went on: \u201cIt will remove barriers to regeneration, from council house building to public transport infrastructure. Crucially, No 10 North will bring the whole of Whitehall together behind places rather than standing in their way.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur long-term ambition is clear: to achieve equivalent living standards across all the regions and nations of the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Regional mayors are to be given a leading role in the UK\u2019s economic policy, Andy Burnham has said,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":707897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-707896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=707896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/707896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/707897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=707896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=707896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=707896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}