Burnham’s ‘Manchesterism’ got him to No 10 – but will it work for the UK?

He relates a story from his time as chief secretary to the Treasury in 2007, in which he was told: “No project in the north has ever made it through the Green Paper, Minister.” He said the same to me in 2020 when there were murmurs of formula reform. Chancellor Rachel Reeves has run pilot projects to change the approach that could support local investment.

In the book, Burnham also advocates abolishing the Barnett formula, which allocates public spending, and increasing spending so that Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland do not lose out to England. The result, according to Burnham, is that the north of England is trapped in a “pincer”.

At Head North and in his final speech, Burnham points out that Germany’s “Basic Law” refers to the duty of “equal standards of living” between regions. He argued that such a law would protect local government and give regions the right to be consulted on long-term decisions.

Burnham also advocates major constitutional changes, including proportional representation and the replacement of the House of Lords by a “Senate of Nations and Territories” and the devolution of powers over a wide swath of public services to the regional level.

He proposes a “Northern Road” on Net Zero that subsidizes the transition, upgrades, cutting bills and building exportable locally owned industry. He compares this to the “Whitehall method”, which he describes as bans, charges and taxes that hit the poorest.

The real political consequence of this will have to take into account rising global energy prices, pressure on household budgets and the impatience of North Sea energy interests to pump more oil and gas. For example, there are some discrepancies regarding the exact devolution of taxes and expenditures for each region. Will the Southeast be able to keep the taxes it has increased? Some aides have recently played down any changes to the Barnett formula due to concerns from Scottish politicians.