Britain needs tax devolution, but beware of fiscal war Opinion Britain is an outlier for tax centralisation, but devolution can go badly wrong, says Tim Sarson Last week government front benchers and local leaders from across England got together at Number 10 North to discuss the details of a new Visitor Levy, or tourism tax. Quite a momentous moment in its own way, because this [...]
Healey launches £150m northern scale-up fund Economics Chancellor John Healey is to pile £150m into start-ups in the North of England as part of the government’s bid to use devolution to drive economic growth. Healey will announce a new fund designed to back university spin outs and other start-ups in Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield and Newcastle. The Chancellor will announce the fund, [...]
The answer to regional inequality isn’t public money, it’s productivity Opinion Andy Burnham’s ambitions for Number 10 North are nothing new, but successive governments have failed to focus on the key reason for differing regional outcomes, says Paul Ormerod The creation of Number 10 North symbolises a key aspect of Andy Burnham’s policies. Namely, to revive the economies of the more deprived parts of the UK. [...]
Burnham forgets, the Labour Party is a moral crusade or it is nothing August 24, 2026 Voters yearn for loftier ambitions. Burnham must think bigger, yes even than devolution, if he is to meaningfully win back the electorate.
Devolution should mean regions competing for investment August 13, 2026 The next phase of devolution should focus less on how funding is distributed and more on how growth is rewarded, says Gus Wiseman For more than 30 years, governments have tried to rebalance England’s economy by directing funding towards regions outside London and the South East. Many of those programmes have delivered worthwhile projects, but [...]
Can John Healey deliver Burnham’s make-or-break devolution agenda? August 11, 2026 Devolution is Andy Burnham’s preferred growth lever. Maurício Alencar explores how devolution under Chancellor John Healey could save Britain – or destroy it. In 1998, two of the closest aides of then-chancellor Gordon Brown produced a report into the regional economic divide in Britain. The report, called ‘Towards a new regional policy: Delivering growth and [...]
Give London power to level up the rest of the country August 6, 2026 If Andy Burnham is to make a success of his devolution agenda he must give London more powers and money to invest in the main drivers of the whole country’s international competitiveness, says Patrick Diamond The new prime minister, Andy Burnham, has put devolution and economic growth at the heart of his government’s narrative. London [...]
Scotland is a warning of what Andy Burnham’s devolution experiment will look like July 30, 2026 For an idea of what left-wing devolution yields, look no further than Scotland, where SNP statist’s efforts to extort the wealthy have backfired, writes Joseph Dinnage For a socialist, Andy Burnham has a funny approach to central government. Unlike his forebears across the former Soviet Union, southeast Asia and Latin America, the King of the [...]
Burnham won’t be bold enough to make devolution shift the dial on growth July 28, 2026 Within a year of Cornwall abolishing the 45p additional rate of income tax and reducing corporation tax to 15 per cent, hundreds of entrepreneurs and businesses, including dozens of major financial and professional services firms, had relocated to the county. The influx of private sector dynamism delivered an astonishing economic boost to a region that [...]
Burnham promises to ‘build new economy’ July 20, 2026 Andy Burnham has said he will “build a new economy” during his tenure as Prime Minister, promising a raft of measures to help households with the cost of living will be announced as soon as tomorrow. Speaking on the steps of Downing Street, the new Labour leader said his government would put “life’s essentials back [...]