![\"Andy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/AndyBurnham-e1783951552101.jpg\")
\t\tBurnham has big devolution plans – but will they amount to much?\t<\/p>\n\t\t\tTuesday 28 July 2026 5:49 am
\n\t\t\t\t\t\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Updated:\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\t\tMonday 27 July 2026 4:56 pm\n\t<\/p>\n
\t\tBurnham has big devolution plans – but will they amount to much?\t<\/p>\n
Within a year of Cornwall abolishing the 45p additional rate of income tax and reducing corporation tax to 15 per cent, hundreds of entrepreneurs and businesses, including dozens of major financial and professional services firms, had relocated to the county. The influx of private sector dynamism delivered an astonishing economic boost to a region that had long ranked as one of the poorest in Europe. <\/p>\n
Demand was so high that Cornwall Council began issuing a form of visa \u2013 with a growing waiting list \u2013 based on investment levels, hiring intention and social contribution weighting. The situation was, in the words of Prime Minister Andy Burnham, evidence of \u201cthe biggest economic and political change seen in this country for 40 years.\u201d <\/p>\n
OK, the fantasy news has to stop there. Although, Burnham really has promised<\/a> change on that scale. But could radical fiscal devolution like this be on the cards? <\/p>\n The PM\u2019s rhetoric is lofty \u2013 he said last week that \u201cfor 40 years, power and resources have been sucked into the centre\u201d and declared that he will empower \u201cevery postcode\u201d to rewire the country. A new paper by Oxford Economics<\/a> suggests he has a point. The UK is an outlier in collecting (and then redistributing) so much of its taxes centrally. Switzerland, Australia, Canada and Germany all raise between 35 and 55 per cent of their total tax take locally. In the UK this figure is around 8 per cent. To redress the balance, Burnham is considering allowing local authorities to retain a share of income tax generated in their area, but the taxes would still be collected nationally and the rates would of course still be set in Westminster. <\/p>\n This could be a bureaucrat\u2019s dream come true<\/p>\n What we\u2019ll get is a complex new calculation for old-fashioned redistribution. There goes my Cornish utopia dream. Oxford Economics warns that \u201csimply redistributing the existing spending pool across regions will not raise national growth \u2013 in fact, it may even reduce it\u201d if money is diverted away from successful regions (like London) where the investment generates more bang for its buck. <\/p>\n I fear we\u2019re at risk of heading backwards, to the days of Gordon Brown\u2019s Regional Development Agencies, where the process of devolution becomes a job creation scheme for the public sector. Picture all that multi-agency partnership work and regional growth quangos. This could all turn out to be a bureaucrat\u2019s dream come true, but will it turn the dial on growth and economic dynamism?<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tRead more<\/p>\n