London, United Kingdom — On his fourth day as Prime Minister, Andy Burnham did not stay in Downing Street in London. Nor did he go to Manchester, the home of Number 10 North. He went to Glasgow.
Hours before King Charles and Queen Camilla opened the 2026 Commonwealth Games, Burnham held her first in-person meetings with Scotland's First Minister John Swinney and Wales' First Minister Rhun ap Iorwerth. The conversations were aimed at demonstrating, in Burnham's own words, that growth is needed “in every postcode across the UK”. A meeting with the First Minister and Deputy First Ministers of Northern Ireland, Michelle O'Neill and Emma Little-Pengelly, is planned as part of a wider tour of the UK in August.
At Burnham's insistence, any discussion of a second referendum on Scottish independence was noticeably absent from the agenda.
Just days after being named prime minister, Burnham is testing a proposal that will define his mandate. He is selling the view that the office itself can be partially moved out of London to Manchester, the city he governed as mayor from 2017 until his return to the UK Parliament in the Makerfield by-election last month.
What really is the number 10 north?
Stripped of rhetoric, Number 10 North is a written ministerial statement. On 21 July, Baroness Smith of Basildon, Leader of the House of Lords and Lord Privy Seal, confirmed on behalf of the Government that the devolution and local growth policy functions are moving from the Ministry of Housing and the Treasury to a new operation based in Manchester. There, officials will work within a restructured Office for the Prime Minister and Cabinet, led by Cabinet Secretary Dame Antonia Romeo.
The interim headquarters is Heron House, in the New Islington area of Manchester, chosen in part for its proximity to the planned Manchester Digital Campus.
Caroline Simpson, outgoing chief executive of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority, has been appointed Burnham's deputy chief of staff and will be in charge of the day-to-day operations of the office. Downing Street says Burnham himself hopes to work from Manchester “at least one day a week”, although officials warn his schedule may change, and insists the deal comes at no extra cost to taxpayers.
Burnham calls it “the nerve center of a reconfigured Britain” and rejects suggestions that it is symbolic. “It's not a trick,” he said at his first cabinet meeting about Number 10 North.
Plumbing, but no water.
Number 10 North “installs the pipes, but the water still does not run,” said Mirte Boot, of the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) North. The institutional architecture is being strengthened, but the fiscal devolution – that is, the transfer of money and the power to collect taxes – that would make such a policy meaningful does not yet exist, he added.
Still, she calls it “a step in the right direction” after what she describes as “too much power condensed into a zip code.” Leaving Westminster is not enough; Number 10 North will need “strong political leadership other than the prime minister”, he added.
The verdict that Number 10 North contains vision and ambition but currently lacks a detailed plan and execution mechanism is a recurring response from independent voices.
Jonathan Carr-West of the Local Government Information Unit calls Burnham's devolution agenda “the most ambitious statement… from a senior politician in a generation”, while warning that English councils are so financially empty that the vision “requires a vehicle” they do not yet have.
Malcolm Morgan, a transport researcher at the University of Leeds, puts it more bluntly: a genuine devolution means spending, taxation and regulatory power, not just relocated functions, and “devolution does not create more funding”.
That funding issue remains unresolved along with the national issue. England's Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026 expanded mayors' control over transport, planning and housing, but left tax devolution to a separate Treasury “roadmap” to be presented alongside the autumn budget. According to the Center for Cities, a UK urban policy think tank, the UK remains the most fiscally centralized country in the G7: around 95 per cent of tax revenue flows directly to Whitehall.
Devolution or recentralization?
For Scotland's SNP government, the Number 10 North framework is beside the point. First Minister Swinney responded that “rhetoric alone is not enough” and argued that four consecutive Holyrood elections have given his party a mandate for Scottish self-determination, something Westminster continues to ignore, he said. In Glasgow, Burnham refused to address that argument directly.
Meanwhile, Ap Iorwerth in Wales was more cooperative, but still said he hoped “that number 10 north would not become Whitehall with a different postcode”.
He also used the meeting with Burnham to push for a new Wales Bill giving police and judicial powers, and a replacement for the Barnett Formula funding mechanism, which Westminster uses to calculate annual changes in block grants allocated to UK devolved governments, so that Wales has funding parity with Scotland.
Nigel Farage of the reformist UK, from the opposite political direction, warned that a Number 10 in the south and one in the north would simply “fight each other”.
What it means in Manchester
In Bury, Greater Manchester, Scottish-born Debe Conway sells children's books at markets and has lived in the area for 56 years, but she is not convinced by the new prime minister.
His biggest concern is immigration, on which he called Burnham weak. And as for Number 10 North, he wants to know how it is being paid for and asks how long it will last, considering the UK has had seven prime ministers in the last 10 years.
Rich Carver, who has run pizzerias in Manchester for 15 years and is currently “absorbing the energy of the city”, says he cares more about what happens in the next 10 years.
He is also tired of the succession of governments and wants this one to last. He likes Burnham and is optimistic enough about the city's trajectory to open a new restaurant in the coming weeks, something he wouldn't have done five years ago.
“We are all one country,” he says, hoping the rest of the UK (and the media) will give the new prime minister time and opportunity to implement his vision. Whether that time produces growth or simply office relocations is the question Number 10 North has yet to answer.
