Andy Burnham’s tenure as prime minister could include a northern No 10 and the devolution of power outside of London, which would signal a major shakeup in UK politics.
Burnham, who was mayor of Greater Manchester and was sworn in as an MP last month, made his first big policy speech this week. He said if he became prime minister he would move away from Whitehall-centric politics and transfer power across the UK, including to cities like Manchester in hopes to fuel economic growth across the country. When Keir Starmer took the Labour Party to power in 2024, part of the remit was a desire to rebalance political and economic power across the UK.
While devolution has been a talking point for years, the fact Burnham could make this a reality makes it time to ask the business community their thoughts.
Here’s what a diverse set of businesses, including male and female-led ventures and those based in the north and the south, had to say about Burnham as PM and potential devolution.
‘Burnham will support SME growth and innovation’ – Dale Brimelow, co-owner and operations director at Duo UK, a packaging manufacturer and consultancy, Manchester.
Our company was the recipient of Research and Development [R&D] funding in 2025 as part of the GM Business Growth Hub, an initiative supported by Mr Burnham when he was mayor of Greater Manchester. We’re utilising R&D support to develop a world-leading packaging innovation, with industry trials being completed and a launch due in the coming months. The GM Growth Hub is all about supporting local enterprises with tailored advice, funding access and workforce development.
“Mr Burnham realised that supporting SMEs can unlock market-leading innovations, drive industry-wide collaboration and create sustained opportunities for economic growth.”
Andy Burnham was keen for the initiative to open doors for SMEs, which don’t always have easy access to huge capital reserves or specialist resources to act on the many great ideas that these smaller, agile and entrepreneurial businesses are often well-known for.
Mr Burnham realised that supporting SMEs can unlock market-leading innovations, drive industry-wide collaboration and create sustained opportunities for economic growth. I believe that if he becomes PM, he’ll be looking to do more of this across the UK. He’s spoken about devolving powers to UK regions, and based on what he delivered as mayor of Greater Manchester, this could well involve creating business support opportunities for SMEs in towns and cities nationwide.
‘Burnham’s agenda could be transformative, but detail matters’ – Todd Davison, co-founder and MD of Purbeck Personal Guarantee Insurance, London.
Andy Burnham’s devolution agenda could be genuinely transformative for small business owners in the north of England; but the detail will matter enormously. The suggestion of regional control over business rates, procurement and essential services sounds compelling, but SMEs need certainty, not complexity.
“Regional economic confidence is a major factor in whether a small business owner feels able to invest and grow, or whether they pull back.”
If devolution means different rules in different regions, business owners and their lenders will need clarity on what that means for investment decisions, borrowing appetite and the risk environment they’re operating in. What we consistently see is that SME owners are already carrying significant personal financial risk, often backed by personal guarantees on business loans.
Regional economic confidence is a major factor in whether a small business owner feels able to invest and grow, or whether they pull back. If Burnham’s agenda genuinely shifts resources and decision-making power closer to the businesses that need it, that could strengthen confidence in markets that have felt left behind. But if devolution creates a patchwork of local rules that adds to the regulatory burden on small firms, it risks making a difficult environment harder still.
I would like Burnham to reverse the employer NI increase, or at minimum raise the threshold significantly so that small businesses aren’t penalised for taking on staff. It is one of the most direct barriers to SME growth we’ve seen in years.
Second, improve access to finance. Too many viable small businesses are being turned away by high street lenders, and the personal guarantee market, which we work in every day, exists precisely because directors are having to put their own assets on the line to secure the funding their business needs. They should be working with lenders to get more capital flowing to SMEs.
‘Business growth matters; but don’t compare the North to London’ – Kate Burt, founder and CEO of boutique compliance consultancy HiveRisk, Preston.
Whoever is in No 10, the priority has to be creating the conditions for businesses to grow. Too many SMEs have faced years of economic uncertainty, rising costs and sluggish growth. London is already one of the world’s leading business and legal centres, and we should continue to build on that success.
But growing the UK economy isn’t about comparing Northern cities to London; it’s about harnessing the untapped potential of cities like Manchester, Leeds and Liverpool to compete with comparable global business hubs for investment, talent and innovation. Backing the North’s world-class legal and professional services sector would give SMEs better access to the expertise they need to scale, create jobs and drive sustainable growth across the UK.
‘Power distribution is positive, if backed by infrastructure’ – Angela Yore, founder and CEO at SkyParlour, a fintech communications and marketing consultancy, Manchester.
The move to distribute power across the UK is positive for SMEs but will need to be backed up by bold infrastructure projects to improve everything from housing to public transport. Companies don’t just need lower business rates, they need employees to want to work in the towns and cities where they are based.
Manchester has been a blueprint; people don’t just want to come here for jobs, but because it’s an extremely livable city. Companies like Go-Cardless in Leeds and Starling in Manchester are showing that world-class companies can exist outside the London bubble and I hope other fintechs take advantage of the opportunity that the new prime minister is looking to create.
‘Power out of Westminster is good; but businesses need practical support’ – Jason Tassie, founder of Know Your Business, a financial products comparison website, Norwich.
If and when Andy Burnham is prime minister, the biggest upside for UK SMEs would be a serious attempt to drag economic power out of Westminster and closer to the businesses actually creating jobs in the regions.
“If Burnham became PM, I’d want to see him focus less on shouting about devolution and more on using it to make the UK a much easier place to run and scale a business.”
Business policy has for a long time been designed through a London lens, and I think that has meant that there has been little understanding of what firms in other parts of the country actually need to grow.
If Burnham genuinely shifted decision-making, infrastructure spending and skills budgets out to regional leaders, I think that would really be positive for SMEs because local economies are not all dealing with the same problems. A one-size-fits-all growth strategy has not worked particularly well. That said, simply “shifting power north” is not actually a proper business plan in itself. What businesses need now is pretty practical; simpler tax and better transport, easier access to growth finance, and help with hiring and retaining people outside London.
If Burnham became PM, I’d want to see him focus less on shouting about devolution and more on using it to make the UK a much easier place to run and scale a business.
