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After a decade of calling more powers and resources to be devolved as mayor of Greater Manchester, Burnham has pledged to do just that if and when he becomes Prime Minister.In this week's much-anticipated speech he spoke of handing down budgets for post-16 education, housing, transport and welfare from mandarins to mayors, in addition to kickstarting council housebuilding.Billed by Burnham as the ‘biggest rebalance of power our country has ever seen', the vision is not lacking in ambition according to programme director for devolution at the Institute for Government, Akash Paun.‘There's a lot of devolution in train at the moment, it will be one of his big priority areas that will be given an injection of momentum.'But Paun said devolution so far has been ‘asymmetric', with established authorities ‘leading the way still' with more far-reaching powers.‘There's a balance between backing places to go further and faster, while hopefully keeping going on widening devolution for better alignment across the piece,' Paun added.The prospective PM said his vision would take 10 years to be fully realised. But he has barely more than half a parliamentary term to get his revolution off the ground before facing the electorate – and possible ejection from office. He will therefore have to make the most of the early momentum likely to be behind him should he enter office, said the Fabian Society's deputy general secretary, Luke Raikes.Burnham argued devolution of more powers to mayors would enable ‘growth in every postcode' and raise living standards. He cited local control of transport for rural areas and powers over education and housing in London, while devolution of employment support would help to reduce the national welfare bill.Local authorities will also be tasked with delivering on a pledge to embark on the ‘biggest council housebuilding programme since the post-war era' using vacant public land.Devolution of responsibilities for skills will come with an ambition to place the technical courses on parity of esteem with university and other academic education.Local government will also have a role to play if Burnham is to realise a programme of ‘reindustrialisation' to boost production of steel, energy and in agriculture, and ‘regeneration of places'.The speech also touched on reform of business rates to help support high streets and pubs and taking greater public control of essential services and utilities including transport, housing, energy and water.The prospective PM said his vision would take 10 years to be fully realised. But he has barely more than half a parliamentary term to get his revolution off the ground before facing the electorate – and possible ejection from office. He will therefore have to make the most of the early momentum likely to be behind him should he enter office, said the Fabian Society's deputy general secretary, Luke Raikes.‘It's crucial he hits the ground running – he cannot be held back by bureaucracy,' he told The MJ.‘Governments and politicians have been talking about devolution for a while now, this feels more sincere. It's an agenda that benefits all corners of the country – people who feel cut off, that Whitehall doesn't care about them.'The speech has been warmly welcomed across local government, but it is tempered by scepticism about how it will be delivered. Burnham himself recognised a ‘stark imbalance of resources' between central and local government, adding: ‘Local government is threadbare and without the resources even to fulfil statutory responsibilities.'He promised to ‘require all government departments and agencies to support strategic and local authorities with staffing and resources' in a bid to end ‘the days of Whitehall fighting the devolution of power into the regions'.But Centre for Cities is among those to argue that local authorities need powers and resources beyond those referenced in Burnham's speech to deliver growth.Director of policy and research Ant Breach said: ‘There is strong evidence from the OECD and the G7 that devolving tax-raising powers would give metro mayors far greater ability and incentive to raise growth and development in their areas.‘It would free metro mayors from the Treasury's policy cycles and give them access to guaranteed long-term revenue streams, freeing them up to do more long-term development and target far higher growth and productivity for their areas as a result.'In his speech, Burnham spoke of his frustration trying to work with central government departments as Greater Manchester mayor – a scenario that has played out in many regions.‘I have had 10 years of fighting the Whitehall machine blocking this place's progress. I am simply not prepared to accept the same for any other area coming after Greater Manchester.'The question is whether having an advocate for local government in the top job will shift the dial on its relations with central government.Paun said: ‘This is about reallocating resources from national to local government – it needs to be not just responsibility, but capacity. If he gets this right, that's good for the centre, to free it up to focus on what it does best. It tries to do too much.'Central to the proposals is a ‘No10 North' office in Manchester that will be tasked with ‘redistributing power and resources across the UK'. As with much of the speech, fine details are scant, but Paun sees it as a possible game-changer for devolution.‘It could bring in key functions from some parts of Whitehall – it will be a different way of governing.'However, he added: ‘It's likely to get rockier if we have an influx of, say, Reform mayors. It may lead to them becoming a lot more oppositional towards government.'One element absent from the speech – and one Burnham has yet to address – was reorganisation, leaving open the future of the current drive across England. Paun pointed out that much of Burnham's political career has seen him working alongside unitary, single-tier authorities.‘It's not something he's had to engage with. I think he would be favourable to the idea.'Raikes said both governance and capacity would need to be bolstered to enable the transfer of responsibilities to take place. Fortunately, the mammoth English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act passed earlier this year has laid the legislative groundwork for this to take place.‘It needs to be led by No10 or the chancellor. They just require political will.' Policies at a glanceDevolution of post-16 education, housing, transport and welfareCouncil housebuilding programmeNo 10 North based in ManchesterBusiness rates reformTechnical education focusGreater public control of transport, housing, energy and waterReindustrialisation programme including defence, energy and farming and steelRegeneration of place

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DEVOLUTION

Burnham's devolution mission

By Martin Ford | 30 June 2026

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