The prospect of an Andy Burnham premiership is significant from a Manchester perspective. As one of the most prominent city-region mayors, Andy Burnham understands from experience that devolution can generate economic growth when local powers, public investment and private-sector confidence are brought together.

Greater Manchester has been testing that proposition for more than a decade. The city region has shown that councils of different political colours can work across administrative boundaries, align on shared priorities and take strategic decisions. That collaborative culture has helped Manchester develop strengths in science & technology, life sciences, digital industries, financial services and advanced manufacturing while supporting the continued growth of its universities and town centres.

The next stage of devolution must be about delivery. The new English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026 strengthens the role of mayors and strategic authorities but powers alone will not build homes, improve railways or provide the utilities capacity needed for growth. Central government must give regions sufficient funding, flexibility and confidence to use them.

Housing is a good example. What is currently on offer will not meet the scale or variety of need in many parts of the country. A more devolved approach could allow local authorities and their partners to explore a broader range of delivery models, including public-sector housing, partnerships with private developers and more sophisticated forms of Build to Rent (BTR). Different markets require different answers. National policy should establish clear standards and outcomes while giving regions more freedom to decide how those outcomes are achieved.

Housing cannot, however, be separated from infrastructure. New communities and expanding businesses need transport, energy, water, digital connectivity and social infrastructure. capacity becomes a crisis.

Growth will remain constrained unless these systems are planned together and investment is made before.

For the North West, this means making progress on Northern Powerhouse Rail and the wider connections needed between Manchester, Liverpool, neighbouring city regions and the Midlands. As Andy Burnham’s work has shown, Manchester and Liverpool are more powerful economically when they work as a connected region rather than treated as isolated urban areas . Better links would strengthen labour markets, support supply chains and give businesses access to a larger concentration of skills and customers.

The same principle could be applied across the country. Britain should identify the particular economic strengths of its regions – then align skills, land, transport and utilities around them. This would create a more polycentric economy in which growth is generated by several strong regions rather than depending so heavily on London and the South East.

Burnham’s experience should also give him an understanding of what obstructs delivery. Planning is part of that picture, but it is rarely the only blockage. Projects can be stalled by fragmented funding, infrastructure constraints, weak coordination between public bodies or uncertainty about long-term government priorities. A Prime Minister who has worked within a devolved system may be well placed to understand how these obstacles interact.

There should nevertheless be realism about the timescale. Economic transformation takes longer than one Parliament, and we face a general election in just three years. It requires a sustained vision, dedicated expertise and a degree of cross-party consistency across electoral cycles. A future Burnham government could put stronger building blocks in place, but only if it prioritises delivery over short term announcements.

The opportunity is to make devolution a working economic model rather than a constitutional idea. Success would be measured not by the creation of another policy framework, but by whether more regions gain the powers, infrastructure and confidence to generate durable growth for themselves.

Harry Bolton, head of Carter Jonas’ Manchester office and North West head of planning and development. 

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