Andy Burnham, the Mayor of Greater Manchester, announced on 29 June 2026 a plan to give mayors across England much more say over how money is spent and decisions are made in their areas, according to the BBC. Right now, most big decisions about investment, job training and transport are made by central government in Westminster. Burnham wants that power to move closer to home — to the mayors and local leaders who understand their own regions.

This isn't a brand new idea. Burnham has been testing it in Greater Manchester since 2018, when he reached an agreement with government to give his region more control. Over nearly a decade, he's built up projects and powers there. Now he wants to offer other regions the same approach. The £1 billion Good Growth Fund, announced last November, shows what this looks like in practice — that's money pooled together for more than 30 projects across Greater Manchester. There's also a new type of qualification for technical education, called the Greater Manchester Baccalaureate, which the government backed in December 2025 and will roll out fully in 2026.

The basic argument is simple: decisions work better when the people making them understand the place where they'll have an effect. That's why Scotland has its own parliament in Edinburgh (Holyrood), Wales has the Senedd in Cardiff, and Northern Ireland has Stormont in Belfast. Burnham wants English mayors to have similar power. But English devolution is messy right now — each mayor has negotiated their own separate deal with the government, and there are no common rules. That's what Burnham's plan tries to change.

His phrase "good growth in every postcode" matters. It suggests he cares not just about whether a region gets richer, but whether that wealth reaches everywhere — rich areas and poorer ones alike. The big question that government officials will now wrestle with is whether this is possible with the money currently available, or whether it would require a major shift in how central government funds regions and what power they have to raise their own taxes.

Burnham remains Mayor of Greater Manchester and has gained influence in Labour's discussion about how the economy should work since the 2024 election. A plan with his name on it naturally carries both policy weight and political positioning — though that's true of most statements from any major mayor. What matters most is what government and other mayors actually do with the ideas.

For people working in local and mayoral government, the details will count most. The Baccalaureate launching in 2026 gives a concrete thing to measure the wider plan against. If other mayors in the West Midlands, West Yorkshire or London pick up Burnham's approach, adapt it or offer something different, that will show whether this stays a Greater Manchester idea or becomes something genuinely national.