Burnham’s arrival in Number 10 raises Northern hopes of a shift in power and investment

Andy Burnham promised on Monday that his premiership would be a “circuit breaker” for Britain as he spoke outside Number 10 for the first time.

The former Greater Manchester Mayor pledged the “biggest changes in the last 40 years”. He said he would build a different political and economic model, move power “into every postcode in the land” and publish a 10-year plan for the country. His first cost-of-living measures are expected this week.

For the North the moment may matter even more than for Westminster. Burnham is the first occupant of Number 10 whose political identity was shaped by English devolution rather than Westminster.

A decade running Greater Manchester turned the former cabinet minister into one of the best-known regional leaders in the country, pressing for local control over transport, skills, housing and economic development. The question now is whether his arrival moves Britain's political and economic centre of gravity, or whether the North is running ahead of itself.

A different route to Number 10

Burnham has long said Britain is too centralised. In his first speech as Prime Minister he blamed decades of centralisation and deindustrialisation for leaving many communities behind.

“We will make this moment a circuit breaker for Britain,” he said. “We will take power out of here and carry it into every postcode in the land, so that they can do more.”

That message lands well in much of the North, where businesses have long complained that decisions about regional economies are still too often taken in Whitehall.

The region has changed considerably over the past one or two decades. The BBC's move to Salford reshaped broadcasting, Channel 4 built a significant base in Leeds and Manchester has grown one of Europe's fastest-growing tech ecosystems. Liverpool continues to attract major film and TV productions, while Sheffield, Newcastle and Leeds have strengthened in advanced manufacturing, fintech, health innovation and digital technology.

Opportunity, but work to do

Katie Gallagher OBE, managing director of Manchester Digital and chair of the UK Tech Cluster Group, said: “Andy Burnham becoming Prime Minister is significant for the North because he understands that growth does not only come from Whitehall or the City of London.”

She warned that political change on its own would not rebalance the economy. “There is still a lot of work to do before power and investment are genuinely rebalanced,” she said. “The North does not need more short-term pots of funding or programmes designed in London and then applied to places as an afterthought, it needs long-term investment, proper local delivery and a better understanding of how regional economies actually work.”

Gallagher said the North already has strengths in AI, cyber security, fintech, health innovation, gaming, data, creative technology and advanced manufacturing, and the task is to help those ecosystems grow.

“The barriers are well known – access to capital, skills, procurement, infrastructure and the way national programmes are designed and delivered. Too often, policy is built around institutions rather than ecosystems.”

Experience of regional business

Julaine Speight, co-owner of Manchester digital agency First Internet, sees Burnham's practical experience as his main asset.

“It represents something genuinely significant – not just a change of face, but the first time in a long time that the person running the country actually understands what it’s like to build something outside London,” she said. “As someone running a digital agency in Greater Manchester, I’ve watched him up close for years. Unlike most politicians who talk about the regions, he governed one.”

She acknowledged the size of the task. “We know what Burnham is capable of at a city-region level… The structures that concentrate power in London didn’t build themselves overnight, and they won’t be dismantled in a single term. But if anyone has the instincts and the track record to start genuinely shifting the dial, it’s him.”

Speight also sees openings for the North's creative and digital sectors if the government backs regional clusters and helps SMEs adopt AI faster. “Most businesses our size are currently trying to work out how to use AI with no support and no resource. Fix that, and you unlock enormous productivity gains across the regions.”

Can Manchesterism scale?

Dr Tony Syme, macroeconomist at the University of Salford, said Burnham's record in Greater Manchester gives clues to how he will govern.

“As Mayor of Greater Manchester, he delivered tangible improvements to household budgets, bringing buses back under public control and capping single fares at £2. It was practical economics, focused on the everyday costs that matter to working families, and it worked.”

Syme said Burnham's approach aims to tackle the long-term effects of deindustrialisation through more public control of essential services and investment in regional economies.

“The key signal, however, will be his choice of Chancellor,” he said. “The decision is reported to be between Ed Miliband and Shabana Mahmood, and it will tell us whether this is a government of energy transformation and public investment or one of fiscal continuity.”

He added: “Turning a city region around took a decade of patient, practical work. The whole country will now be watching to see if Manchesterism can scale.”

Technology and government

Tech leaders argue that innovation will decide whether Burnham delivers the productivity gains the country needs.

Gallagher wants the North to become a national testbed for technology adoption, with more support for AI, digital skills and startup procurement. She warned against any weakening of the UK's focus on science and technology.

“If the rumours about DSIT are true, abolishing it would be the wrong move at the wrong time. AI and emerging technologies are reshaping every sector, so we need stronger national leadership on technology, not a weaker or more fragmented approach.”

Professor Richard Whittle, Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Public Policy at the University of Salford, said AI should not be treated as just another technology policy. “AI policy is economic policy,” he said.

“The meaningful questions are about productivity, labour markets, industrial strategy and ensuring that the benefits of AI are shared across people and places rather than becoming concentrated in a small number of sectors or organisations.”

He welcomed Burnham's focus on place-based growth but said technology could not fix decades of underinvestment by itself. “If we get those foundations right, AI will not simply make existing industries more productive; it can help build a more resilient, inclusive and competitive economy. But technology alone will never be enough. Sustainable growth depends on the strength of the economic system into which it is introduced.”