Andy Burnham's Vision on Growth - Summary

Greater Manchester as the model

• Burnham frames his decade as mayor as proof of concept: "Place first, not party first... Problem solving, not point scoring. Long-term, not short-term."
• Place-based cooperation the bedrock of mission to equalise living standards
• Calls this approach "the Greater Manchester Way," built on partnership across public, private, community, voluntary, academic, faith and trade union sectors.

Critique of Westminster and Whitehall

•  Describes Westminster as "set up for conflict," and requiring "radical change."
• Says he found Parliament "more fragmented, disjointed... and frankly unhappier" than when he left it a decade ago.
• Attacks Whitehall's and departmental silos: "too much time is wasted with departmental silos battling each other and battling the Treasury rather than getting things done."
• Pledges to end whip-driven fear and involve more people in government decision-making

Devolution and rebalancing power

• Central government to work to support and resource mayors and strategic authorities
• Central argument: "growth cannot be ordered from the top down... it can only be nurtured from the bottom up."
• Promises "the biggest rebalancing of power our country has seen," with tailored powers for rural economies, industrial-transition areas, coastal towns, and even London (more control over education and housing).
• A new "Number 10 North" unit based in Manchester would coordinate this, explicitly not concentrating power there but redistributing it nationwide, including to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
• "The days of Whitehall fighting the devolution of power into the regions and nations are over for good."
  "Manchesterism" as the good growth model
• Defined as growth built on sound local finances, university-anchored innovation, infrastructure investment, secure housing and employment, and "public intervention where necessary" rather than leaving everything to the market (Stockport for example)
• Framed as a rejection of the old trickle-down model.

Three priorities for Number 10 (North)

1/ Utility reform 

• Greater public control of water, housing, energy, transport, modelled on Greater Manchester's bus network reforms
• 10-year plan to bring down the cost of essentials

2/  Re-industrialisation 

• Regional industrial strategies, cross-region partnerships and industrial clusters between regions (e.g. Cambridge-Manchester life sciences), procurement reform favouring British suppliers, and safeguarding sovereign capability in steel, defence, energy and food/farming. 
• Public and private investment at place-based level to help areas establish local growth funds. 
• Social value weighting for all public contracts, and ensuring British based companies are in better place to win those contracts
• Path to being the innovation nation of the next decade

3/ Regeneration of places 

• The "biggest council house building program since the postwar period," using vacant public land, plus business rate reform to support high streets and pubs.
  Education and welfare
• Calls for parity between academic and technical education routes, ending a system "configured entirely around the university route." Rethink of education system at the start.
• References the Alan Milburn report and proposes devolved employment support delivered through community and voluntary organisations rather than institutions people "fear."
• Increase supply of 45 day placements and internships and mental health support of young people through work
• Clear path to a reindustrialised Britain

Housing

• Notes Britain has lost "almost one and a half million council homes since the 1980s," driving a housing trap of rising housing benefit costs, high waiting lists and homelessness pressures on councils.
• Proposes a "national housing first philosophy," citing Finland as the model and arguing that "Everything starts with a good home."