Andy Burnham, Britain’s incoming prime minister, is placing a massive political wager on his ability to do something that has defeated nearly every British leader before him: breaking up one of the Western world’s most centralized governments to close the gap between wealthy and struggling regions.
Burnham has put forward what he describes as the “biggest rebalancing of power our country has ever seen,” a plan to shift decision-making authority away from London and hand regional leaders greater say over budgets, transportation, housing, job training, and economic development.
The plan is the foundation of Burnham’s vision for the country, but it comes with serious political dangers. The work is extraordinarily complicated, resistance from within central government is expected, and any real-world improvements will take years to materialize.
Burnham likely has no more than three years before the next general election — and British voters have not been forgiving of leaders who made bold promises about transforming the country but fell short.
“If you talk a good game, but don’t actually pass any of the power on, or it happens very slowly, people get impatient and get frustrated by it,” said Henri Murison, chief executive of the Northern Powerhouse Group, a lobbying organization representing business and civic leaders from northern England.
Why Spreading Economic Power Matters
Britain ranks among the most centralized developed democracies when it comes to taxing and spending, and it also has some of the sharpest economic divides between regions. Many economists and legislators say these two facts are not a coincidence.
According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, only about 6% of Britain’s tax revenue is collected below the national level — compared to 20% in France and roughly half in Germany and the United States.
That concentration of power in the center has deepened regional inequality to a degree that exceeds even the gaps between eastern and western Germany and between northern and southern Italy — two countries already known for stark internal economic divides.
Supporters of devolution argue that regions given control over their own revenue have stronger motivation to attract investment and grow their local economies.
However, experts caution that simply moving money around won’t be enough. Burnham would need to build entirely new systems of local financial oversight and accountability in areas of England where those structures barely exist.
A striking illustration of the problem: only 5% of local government bodies completed fully audited accounts for 2024/2025. That weakness is one reason the government’s own spending watchdog refused — for the third year in a row — to formally approve the UK’s overall government financial accounts.
“Getting the accountability culture right isn’t a ‘nice-to-have’ at all — it’s actually existential for devolution to endure,” said Marcus Johns, a senior researcher at the Fabian Society think tank.
Johns pointed to Britain’s history of setting up regional governing bodies only to dissolve them once political enthusiasm waned. He argues the solution is not just moving executive power outward, but also strengthening local democratic institutions — empowering oversight bodies to hold regional politicians accountable and giving financial officers a legal obligation to answer for locally raised funds.
Britain has been expanding regional self-governance in phases over the past three decades, establishing parliaments in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and creating elected mayors in several English city regions.
Burnham’s plans are expected to center on transferring more decision-making to regional leaders across England, where 85% of the UK’s population lives, while also granting some additional authority to the devolved governments in Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
But evidence from that earlier round of devolution offers a cautionary note. Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland — each responsible for areas like healthcare and policing — have all ranked in the bottom half of British regions for economic growth since the late 1990s.
Politicians in those nations counter that their governments lack the meaningful powers to raise taxes and borrow money that would actually allow them to shape their economies.
Akash Paun, programme director for devolution at the Institute for Government think tank, said Burnham’s years as mayor of Greater Manchester gave him a solid grasp of what regions actually need. But Paun cautioned that rolling out new powers across all of England couldn’t happen at the same pace everywhere.
“He might find there’s less low-hanging fruit than he would hope,” Paun said. “One needs to ensure that you’ve got institutions, leaders and capacity able to exercise those functions appropriately. So you may not be able to do that all overnight.”
The Risks Ahead
Burnham has proposed establishing a new prime ministerial office in Manchester, calling it his planned “nerve centre for a rewired Britain.” But beyond that symbolic move, it remains to be seen how far he is actually willing or able to go in handing over real power and funding.
British prime ministers going back to the 1960s have pledged to decentralize power or reduce regional inequality. David Cameron promoted the “Northern Powerhouse” concept for England, creating the mayoral position that Burnham himself later held. Boris Johnson launched a “Levelling Up” initiative but stopped short of transferring actual powers.
Government departments — particularly the finance ministry — have historically resisted giving up control over spending, especially where local finances are shaky or oversight is uncertain. Some economists also question whether devolution delivers the economic benefits its supporters claim, while the costs of restructuring are certain.
Burnham will also face more pressing day-to-day demands, including international crises and the challenge of finding near-term ways to grow the economy while budgets remain tight.
Former Conservative prime minister Sunak, writing in the Sunday Times, offered a pointed warning: “Burnham may want to be the ‘devolution PM’, but the world will have other ideas.”
