Number 10 North needs a 'mindset shift' in central government, deputy director says
Duncan Parish, deputy director of Number 10 North, has said central government needs a "mindset shift" before the Manchester office can deliver its objectives. He made the remarks to a conference of local political and business leaders in Lincolnshire, as BBC News reported.
Number 10 North is a sister office to Downing Street, set up in Manchester by Prime Minister Andy Burnham in July. It forms part of the new Office for the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
Parish said there were institutional challenges within government that needed to be overcome to deliver change, and that he was still facing "institutional barriers". He said delivering change required everyone to change. "Part of that change is a mindset shift within central government," he said.
Parish, a former civil servant in Whitehall, the cluster of London departments that runs central government, moved to Manchester four years before the conference. He said one priority of the office was to "shift power and accountability" closer to local areas. He said this would also mean reforming the civil service.
The office has drawn criticism. In September, Conservative shadow minister Mike Wood called it a "gimmick" during a debate in the House of Commons. He criticised a lack of transparency about its costs, staffing and office attendance.
Cabinet Office minister Sally Jameson told MPs the government did not know how much had been spent on hotels for Number 10 North staff, ministers and special advisers travelling between London and Manchester. She said the cost was not centrally collated.
Burnham hosted Irish Taoiseach (prime minister) Micheál Martin at the office in September. He has indicated he will work from its "situation room" at least once a week. A government statement in the Commons record says the office will work with local leaders and parliamentarians to identify the right economic clusters, or groups of related industries, in the right places.
When the office was announced, Burnham vowed to make it the "nerve centre of a rewired Britain", with aims including housing and the reindustrialisation of parts of the country.
