In a major speech, Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham has told Whitehall it must remove its ‘bias against the North’ if it is ever to achieve its goal to grow the economy
Andy Burnham has told Whitehall it must remove its “bias against the North” if it is ever to achieve its goal to grow the economy.
The Greater Manchester Mayor, dubbed King of the North, said the power of “place” – where people live – should be at the heart of the government’s growth plans. He criticised huge “information gaps” between policymakers in London and people living in their communities.
Mr Burnham recounted how in 2021 the Tories in No10 were left in disbelief after he said in a speech that bus prices in his area were triple those in London. “Transport for Greater Manchester received a call from 10 Downing Street asking if the claim was true. It was,” he said. “And it revealed just how little thought the centre had given to this.”
In a speech at the Institute for Government on Wednesday, the former Labour Health Secretary laid out his plans for “primacy of place” to be at the centre of government thinking. He praised Deputy PM Angela Rayner and Chancellor Rachel Reeves for their engagement in the process to share power around the country but urged for further bold action.
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He called for the Green Book – Treasury guidance on value for money – to be reformed and said he would be making a pitch to the government’s Spending Review for a 10-year investment pipeline of specific projects worth between £10-15billion. “We need to see the rewriting of the Green Book to remove the bias against the North and allow the government and its agencies such as the national wealth fund to invest alongside us in that 10-year pipeline,” he said.
Mr Burnham particularly hit out at transport issues in the North of England, warning officials they “have to wake up to this issue” as it is a key barrier to employment and growth. He called for a commitment to the Northern Arc, a new rail line between Manchester and Liverpool which he said will achieve more growth than the Labour-approved link between Oxford and Cambridge. The Labour politician also demanded a replacement for HS2 between the West Midlands and the North West and major upgrades to the M60 motorway.
Elsewhere Mr Burnham criticised “policy silos” which see single issues tackled one at a time by separate departments. He gave the example of thousands of pounds of NHS cash being spent on treating a patient – for them to be released to a house with damp and mould, or on the streets. He said housing, employment and health support all need to be better joined up. Mr Burnham also criticised a university-centred approach to schooling as he said two-thirds of kids in his area don’t go down that route.
He said: “Authorities work best when they operate on the principle of place first, rather than party first. Unlike the divisions of party, place is a unifying force. However people vote, they are united by a desire to see the place where they live move forward. These days, we are lacking things which unite us in common cause.”
He added: “Growth cannot be ordered from the top down by individual silos. Instead, it has to be nurtured and watered from the bottom up by people in those places, linking education to housing to transport and planning and making it all coherent. That is the magic where growth happens and it can’t be done in any way.”
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