Andy Burnham has been warned he must complete England’s devolution map at speed or preside over a “two-tier England” in which a firm’s prospects depend on whether it happens to sit inside a mayor’s boundary.
The warning comes from IPPR North, the leading think tank for the North of England, in a paper published as the incoming prime minister prepares a programme built around handing power to regional mayors.
More than a quarter of England’s population still lives outside a Mayoral Strategic Authority, the bodies that increasingly shape transport, housing and regeneration decisions. For business owners in those areas, that means no local champion with the powers and budgets their competitors in Greater Manchester or the West Midlands can call on.
The researchers argue that leaving gaps in the devolved map risks rising resentment in communities that feel left behind, with public confidence in political institutions already at historic lows.
Money is already moving on the strength of the mayoral model. NatWest’s recent £20 billion commitment to the North of England was pitched explicitly as a bet on devolution. Firms outside mayoral areas risk watching that capital flow past them.
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