Burnham to spend first day working from No 10 North
Andy Burnham will hold its first meeting at the new No 10 North in Manchester on Friday.
Downing Street’s branch in the North West will form part of the prime minister’s aim to shift power from Whitehall and Westminster to regions across the country.
Ministers Lucy Powell and Louise Haigh will also operate regularly from the new facility, with up to 300 civil servants expected to join them by the end of next year.
In Manchester on Friday, Burnham will chair a meeting of the National Economic Council, a cabinet committee first established in 2008 to respond to economic challenges in the UK.
The meeting will bring together senior ministers and regional mayors to “put the authority at the heart of the government’s mission to change Britain for the better”.
Ahead of the meeting, the prime minister said: “For 40 years, power and resources have been relegated to the centre, and too many communities have felt forgotten, without the attention and investment they deserve.”
He added: “The days of Whitehall resisting devolution are well over.”
Strategic decisions on devolution and local economic growth will shift from the Treasury and the Department of Housing, Communities and Local Government to No 10 North, but both departments will have input in these areas.
Rayner, whose constituency is in Greater Manchester, is also expected to work from the new facility for the first time on Friday.
Burnham’s first day as prime minister at No 10 North will include talks with business leaders, including representatives from the Federation of Small Businesses, the Confederation of British Industry and the British Chambers of Commerce, on how to generate growth and investment.
Labor wants to create a plan that will draw on its existing devolution strategy and local growth policy to allow civil servants, mayors, councils and businesses to work more closely together.
Burnham’s first week in power saw a number of interventions aimed at easing living costs, including the announcement of a 20% cut on business rates for pubs, social clubs and live music venues from April next year.
But Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch criticized his ambitions as “too small”.
In his speech on Thursday, he called on him to tackle high energy costs for businesses as well as a gap in defense funding.
“When you’re mayor of Manchester, you’re given a big chunk of someone else’s money and you decide where to spend it,” he said.
“I’m sure it would be great fun. It might make you very popular. But it’s not the same as being prime minister.”
“Andy Burnham needs to do better. He’s still acting like he’s the mayor of Manchester. He’s now the prime minister of the UK, he needs to start acting like one.”
