Labour PM Keir Starmer appointed Andy Burnham as his chief architect for a sweeping devolution agenda that transfers power away from Westminster and hands control of essential services to regional authorities and public bodies. The move represents the most radical redistribution of governance since devolution itself took hold in the late 1990s.
Burnham, who spent a decade as Manchester mayor before joining the cabinet, outlined plans to give local governments direct authority over transport infrastructure, health services, housing, and economic development. The framework strips away layers of central bureaucracy and replaces top-down Westminster directives with locally accountable decision-making. Each region would gain statutory powers to coordinate services rather than simply implement policies designed in Whitehall.
Public control emerges as the second pillar. Burnham's strategy calls for shifting essential services from private contractors back to public ownership or public-interest governance models. Water companies, energy infrastructure, and social care systems would operate under frameworks prioritizing public benefit over shareholder returns. This reverses decades of privatization and contracting-out that characterized Conservative governance from Thatcher onward.
Tory opposition leader Kemi Badenoch immediately weaponized the announcement, accusing Burnham of advocating "more government control, more taxes and more politicians." She framed devolution as bureaucratic bloat and warned voters that local control meant multiplication rather than streamlining of administrative overhead. Her critique targets the cost implications. Regional authorities, housing boards, and public service trusts require staffing, coordination, and funding mechanisms that could drive up council taxes.
The Treasury faces pressure to bankroll expanded local governance without gutting central services. Labour's manifesto committed to "devolution without dumping," meaning Westminster remains responsible for core funding even as it surrenders direct control. That tension will define implementation debates throughout Parliament.
Burnham's appointment signals Labour's ideological break from New Labour triangulation. Tony Blair and Gordon Brown advocated devolution within markets. New governance still partnered with private contractors and accepted privatized utilities as inevitable. Burnham instead champions wholesale transfer of ownership and authority, borrowing language from both Scottish and Welsh progressivism and the municipal socialism movements that gained traction in English cities.
The policy also targets the "red wall" constituencies Labour recaptured from Conservatives in 2019 and 2024. Northern England, the Midlands, and post-industrial regions long felt abandoned by London-based governance. Burnham promises that devolution restores agency to these communities. Transport links between Manchester and Liverpool improve through local coordination rather than DfT committees. Regional health boards prioritize local patient needs over national efficiency targets. This framing casts devolution as anti-establishment and pro-worker.
Implementation begins with pilot programs in major urban areas before expanding to counties and combined authorities. Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland already possess devolved structures. Burnham must now construct equivalent frameworks across England, historically the most centralized portion of the UK. That construction requires legislation, funding formulas, and cross-party negotiation.
Badenoch's attack lands on cost and complexity. But Labour banks on the idea that regions tired of Westminster neglect prefer accountability closer to home, even if that means paying more locally for services they control themselves.