Burnham's Plan to Break the Treasury's Grip on Economic Growth
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham wants to strip the Treasury of its long-standing control over growth policy, relocating economic strategy to a new No 10 department based in Manchester and overseen by cabinet ally Louise Haigh. The plan, first outlined publicly in July and detailed further this week, would take control of growth policy out of Whitehall's most powerful ministry and place it under the direct authority of Downing Street (The Guardian, 2026-08-19).
Burnham told the Times that having No 10 lead on the growth mission gives "maximum power to unlock blockages in the Whitehall system" (The Guardian, 2026-08-19). He has described the No 10 North innovation as "more significant than people realise" and called for a "wholesale change in the architecture and culture of the British state" to unite the country and drive growth (Greater Manchester Combined Authority, 2025-04-02.
A Historical Echo
The parallel Burnham has chosen is deliberate. He likened his approach to Harold Wilson's Department for Economic Affairs, the short-lived 1960s body responsible for drawing up a national plan for the economy (The Guardian, 2026-08-19; The National Archives). That department was ultimately crushed by Treasury resistance, and its demise is a case study in why chancellors rarely tolerate rivals for economic authority.
The Treasury's grip on the public purse has frustrated prime ministers across the political spectrum. Boris Johnson all but forced the resignation of chancellor Sajid Javid in February 2020 by handpicking his team, attempting to install No 10 loyalists inside the Treasury (The Guardian, 2020-02-13). Margaret Thatcher famously favoured her economic adviser Alan Walters over chancellor Nigel Lawson, prompting Lawson's furious resignation (The Guardian, 2026-08-19). Burnham's innovation is structural rather than personal: instead of fighting the Treasury for control of its existing levers, he wants to move the growth remit elsewhere entirely.
Empowering Metro Mayors
Central to this is the empowerment of metro mayors. Burnham hopes handing additional powers to city-region leaders will help bring together growth policies currently scattered across Whitehall departments, consolidating fragmented levers under coordinated local leadership (The Guardian, 2026-08-19). In a speech to the Convention of the North, the Levelling Up Secretary described the plan as "a deliberately long-term economic plan" and said the government is "reforming the shape and nature of government itself – re-distributing power" (gov.uk, 2023-01-25).
The structural argument has support among policy economists. Ruth Curtice, director of the Resolution Foundation and a former Treasury official, noted that no single department owns all the levers for growth policy (The Guardian, 2026-08-19). Michael Jacobs, former adviser to Gordon Brown and emeritus professor of political economy at the University of Sheffield, proposed a new growth unit composed of officials from all relevant departments, a model that tracks closely with the cross-departmental logic Burnham appears to be pursuing (The Guardian, 2026-08-19).
The Chancellor Question
Burnham's choice of chancellor adds another layer. John Healey was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer on 20 July 2026 (gov.uk). Sanjay Raja, chief UK economist at Deutsche Bank, noted that Healey was instrumental in the creation of regional development agencies during the Blair-Brown era, bodies created to bring a regional dimension to growth and industrial policy before being scrapped by the 2010 Conservative government (The Guardian, 2026-08-19). Healey's chancellor's gov.uk profile page now reads "No10 North open for business" (gov.uk), a signal of institutional alignment between the Treasury and the new No 10 department, or at least the presentation of one.
The Treasury itself is still recruiting for growth-related roles. It advertised a Deputy Director position for Housing, Planning and Cities focused on economic growth and spending, with shortlisting scheduled for the week commencing 31 August 2026 (Civil Service Jobs). This suggests the Treasury has not been hollowed out; rather, the two power centres may be settling into an uneasy coexistence rather than a clean transfer of authority.
The Wider Economic Agenda
Burnham's broader economic agenda is taking shape alongside the structural reforms. He pledged to release a long-term plan for the next decade "within months" and repeated his commitment to build more public housing (Reuters, 2026-07-20). He intends to preserve the previous administration's pro-growth approach to financial services regulation (Reuters, 2026-07-24, and announced on 21 July 2026 that VAT would be removed from electricity bills starting October 2026 (Reuters, 2026-07-21. The chancellor delivered her annual Mansion House speech on 14 July 2026, setting out the government's economic strategy and financial services policy delivery (HM Treasury, 2026-07-15.
The broader context here is that Burnham is attempting something the British state has structurally resisted for decades: a genuine second centre of economic power. Wilson's Department for Economic Affairs failed. The regional development agencies were abolished. Every recent prime minister who has tried to bend the Treasury to No 10's will has either been forced to back down or has paid a political price. Burnham's bet is that geography changes the equation. By physically placing the growth mission in Manchester, under a cabinet ally, and by routing it through empowered metro mayors rather than through Whitehall's existing departmental architecture, he is attempting to create facts on the ground that the Treasury cannot simply absorb or smother. Whether Healey's chancellorship becomes a partner or a rival to No 10 North will likely determine whether this experiment outlasts the Wilson precedent.
