British Prime Minister Andy Burnham opened a new northern outpost of his office in Manchester on Friday, formally launching a flagship effort to reverse decades of political and economic centralisation in London.
The facility, dubbed “No. 10 North,” sits roughly 265 kilometres northwest of Downing Street and will serve as a base from which Burnham says he intends to work at least one day a week. The move caps a rapid first week in office for the prime minister, who succeeded Keir Starmer on Monday.
Burnham framed the initiative as central to his governing agenda, telling staff on arrival that it “might be the best day of my life.” He described the Manchester hub as “the nerve center for a rewired Britain” and repeated his pledge to put “more power into every postcode” to stimulate growth in post-industrial cities and struggling seaside towns.
Writing in a newspaper column, Burnham argued that for decades too much “decision-making power has remained in London,” leaving struggling regions “unable to turn things around because they simply do not have the necessary power to do so.”
The opening followed a flurry of activity since Burnham entered Downing Street. In his first days he travelled across England and to Scotland, held talks with more than a dozen world leaders, and announced a series of small but symbolic economic measures, including a tax cut on household electricity bills, a £2 (approximately $2.70) cap on bus fares, and a tax break for pubs.
“We are on borrowed time if we don’t get a move on,” newly appointed Housing Secretary Angela Rayner told the BBC on Friday. “This is a down payment within the first week that says, ‘We get it.'”
Friday’s launch gathered Cabinet ministers, senior civil servants and regional mayors at the Manchester site, which is currently housed in an office building shared with a branch of the cyberintelligence agency GCHQ.
The plan has drawn criticism from opposition politicians, who have dismissed the northern office as a gimmick. Supporters counter that decentralising power and spreading wealth from southern England is essential to addressing long-standing regional inequality.
Burnham’s early diplomatic outreach signals continuity in Britain’s international engagement, following the foreign policy direction set during his predecessor’s recalibrated approach to trade and relations abroad.
The success of the Manchester project is expected to hinge on whether the government can translate symbolic gestures into durable devolution of budgets and authority. For now, Burnham has positioned regional rebalancing as the defining test of his premiership.