Andy Burnham's 'No. 10 North' plan faces skepticism

This report is from this week's CNBC's UK Exchange newsletter. Like what you see? You can subscribe here.

The dispatch

Although yet to submit himself to proper media questioning, Andy Burnham, Britain's incoming — and unelected — prime minister, is fleshing out his policy aims.

One of his big ideas, announced last week in Manchester, is a "No. 10 North" in which swathes of civil servants currently working in the prime minister's iconic London office would relocate to a new operation in the north-western city.

Burnham, who was Greater Manchester's mayor from 2017, sees it as a genuine step towards "rewiring" Britain and devolving power from London's Whitehall — where the U.K. government is run — to the country's regions.

"It will be the conduit through which we redistribute power and resources across the U.K.," Burnham said last week. "It will coordinate all parts of government at national and local level to agree a long-term economic strategy and help all places set new growth ambitions."

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The idea, nicknamed "Manc-A-Lago" by Westminster wags, has attracted skepticism.

Cynics suggest it merely reflects Burnham's desire to work from home a couple of days a week and the reluctance of his wife to relocate to the capital.

Guto Harri, an advisor to former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, noted the idea "sounds strangely analogue" in an age of AI and virtual working.

"Rewiring doesn't begin by moving desks around. It begins by changing incentives, backing innovation and making Britain the easiest place in the world to start, build and grow a business," Harri added.

Meanwhile, veteran political commentator Andrew Rawnsley wrote in The Observer: "The worldly-wise of Whitehall sigh that he will discover the job is too 24/7 for the prime minister to quit London for frequent 'off-sites' subject to the vagaries of Avanti West Coast's train service and wifi."

Burnham would not be the first prime minister to work outside London. Rishi Sunak, prime minister from 2022 to 2024, is thought to have spent most Fridays working at HM Treasury's new office in Darlington, County Durham, but for security reasons did not advertise the fact.

London calling

"No. 10 North," however, is emblematic of what Burnham sees as a wider dispersal of powers and decision-making in one of the developed world's most centralized countries.

According to the OECD, just 5% of all tax revenue in the U.K. was collected by local government in 2024, compared with 14% in France — also a country whose economy is dominated by its capital city — and 15% in the U.S. Critics of that arrangement say it creates vast regional inequalities.

Yet Burnham faces a tough sell. The U.K.'s biggest moves toward devolution — creating the Scottish parliament and Welsh assembly in 1999 — have been anything but successful.

Scotland, once regarded as having the world's finest education system, has steadily slid down the international rankings since devolution, particularly in subjects like maths, while healthcare and education outcomes in Wales are notably worse than in England. Both administrations have been beset by scandals at various points.

Nor, from a democratic perspective, have they captured public imagination: turnout for the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Parliament elections this year was just above 50%, compared with nearly 60% for the most recent U.K. parliamentary election in 2024.

Past attempts at versions of devolution in England have likewise failed to rouse excitement. Turnouts for elections of police and crime commissioners have seldom topped 25%, while a 2004 attempt to create a regional assembly in England's North East was roundly rejected in a referendum.

Burnham's proposals, which will be resisted by civil servants reluctant to relinquish their power, also require serious amounts of money to make them fly at a time when the U.K. government has little to spare. It is hard to see how they will take off.

— Ian King

Need to know

EasyJet shares soar 10% as budget airline agrees to $7.3 billion Castlelake takeover

Castlelake's improved plan to take EasyJet private comes after the carrier last month rejected a £4.93 billion proposal from the private equity firm. Castlelake has made five bids for EasyJet in total.

M&A is ‘on fire,' Citi UK CEO says

U.K. M&A is running hot, driven by large-cap companies simplifying their businesses and overseas buyers targeting cash-generative British assets, Citi U.K. CEO Tiina Lee has told CNBC.

AI is outpacing the rules, Europe's top bankers and regulators warn

Nikhil Rathi, CEO of the U.K.'s Financial Conduct Authority, said the traditional cycle of rulemaking "doesn't work" in an era of fast-moving technological change, particularly as agentic AI development accelerates.

— Katrina Bishop

Coming Up