Britain’s New Leader Shifts Power from Downing Street to Manchester with ‘No. 10 North’

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has shifted some of Britain’s political power from London to Manchester with the establishment of ‘No. 10 North,’ a flagship initiative that aims to decentralize power and economic growth around the country.

Located in a modern office block about 165 miles (260 kilometers) from the prime minister’s official London office and residence at 10 Downing St., No. 10 North is home to a full-time staff of aides, experts, and civil servants who work alongside the prime minister at least one day a week.

Burnham, who was mayor of Greater Manchester before vaulting back into national politics, believes that Manchester holds the key to avoiding the fate of his predecessor, Keir Starmer, who stepped down in July after two years in office following missteps, policy U-turns, and failure to get Britain’s sluggish economy growing.

During his nine years as Manchester mayor, Burnham was praised for standing up to central government on behalf of a proud, battle-scarred northern city that gave birth to the Industrial Revolution, movements for social change, and a dynamic music scene. He gained the nickname ‘King of the North’ for his championing of the city and his political ambition.

Burnham promoted what has been called ‘Manchesterism,’ a form of business-friendly socialism that involves harnessing private investment for major projects and decentralizing government to give communities more control over housing, transport, training, and public services.

The city center boomed during his mayoralty, with skyscrapers sprouting from vacant lots, service industries growing, a thousand coffee shops blooming, and a municipally run network of bright yellow buses and trams crisscrossing the city.

Now, Burnham wants to replicate the approach across the country, using No. 10 North as the engine room for redistributing wealth and economic opportunities to areas blighted by shuttered industries, lost jobs, and an exodus of young people.

One of the first steps in this initiative is the announcement that mayors will get to keep a greater share of income and business tax revenue from their areas, with Burnham calling it the ‘biggest transfer of power, funding, and responsibility from Westminster in a generation.’

However, many of the details of this initiative have yet to be announced, including how much new money mayors will be getting.

Rob Ford, professor of political science at the University of Manchester, said that Burnham’s bold early moves suggest that he ‘means business in terms of changing the overall mechanics of government.’

‘We have one of the most centralized countries out of all developed democracies in terms of how much money and decision-making power gets hoovered into the center, how little there is for the provinces to do,’ Ford said.

Burnham’s critics point out that Manchester’s boom has not spread to all its outskirts, and the anti-immigration party Reform UK has been a beneficiary of voters’ discontent.

It’s envisioned that No. 10 North will eventually get a brand-new headquarters as part of an inner-city redevelopment project. For now, it shares a building with a chain pub, a civic register office, and a branch of the cyberintelligence agency GCHQ.

Supporters of Burnham’s initiative say that No. 10 North is already a breath of fresh air, with Rose Marley, chief executive of Cooperatives UK, an umbrella group for member-owned businesses, saying that it was ‘so refreshing that it wasn’t us having to travel to London all the time.’

‘Westminster might start realizing how bad the trains are and how much it costs when they have to come back the other way,’ Marley said.

Many Mancunians are proud of their city, and many support the idea of it getting more control over its own affairs.

‘I think it makes sense,’ said Sam Turner, a nursing lecturer. ‘Because the north is very different to the south, there are different house values, there’s different land values, with different salaries.’

However, Ford says that Burnham will need to show that he is giving power to all parts of the country, not just Manchester.

‘You could go to Liverpool down the road, or Leeds, or Sheffield and they’ll say, ‘Well, you know, an office in Manchester isn’t necessarily an office for us,”’ Ford said.

Lesley Lebbon, visiting Manchester from Newmarket in eastern England, said that No. 10 North is ‘a start,’ but that other regions need attention, too.