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Andy Burnham details plan to move growth policy out of Treasury
Burnham says leading the growth mission from No 10 North would help “unlock blockages” in Whitehall, where the Treasury has long controlled public finances.
The Guardian Business reports that UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has outlined a plan to take control of growth policy away from the Treasury and place it into a new No 10 department based in Manchester, drawing on historical Labour attempts to bring more long term thinking to economic policymaking.
The proposal is framed as a way to reduce what critics call the Treasury’s “stranglehold” over the public purse, which Burnham argues can cloud the growth agenda by combining growth oversight with public finance control.
Burnham told The Times that having No 10 lead on the growth mission would give it maximum power to address barriers “where they exist in the Whitehall system,” and he pointed to decisions during Keir Starmer’s tenure that some Labour MPs attributed to the so called “Treasury brain,” including cuts to winter fuel allowance and deference to City lobbying on a bank windfall tax.
The Guardian Economics adds that Burnham’s route to growth also runs through devolution, including additional powers for metro mayors, with Resolution Foundation director Ruth Curtice arguing that coordinating across policy areas such as housing, education, and planning could be a more effective use of the Manchester based unit since no single department controls all the levers.