Chancellor to lead growth strategy from No10 North, Burnham says

The Prime Minister’s plans to hand responsibilities for economic growth to the new No10 North are not a demotion for Chancellor John Healey and the Treasury, Angela Rayner has said.

Andy Burnham said in an interview with The Times that the new Manchester-based satellite office of Downing Street will take over responsibility for growth from the Treasury as part of his drive to push power out of Whitehall.

The Treasury will focus on controlling the public finances instead, he said.

Mr Healey fully supports the move, according to the Prime Minister, who described it as part of a “huge transfer of power”.

The UK is not “set up for growth”, Mr Burnham said in the interview, which came as inflation surged to its highest rate since March as a result of energy prices being pushed up by the Iran war.

Housing Secretary Ms Rayner insisted the Prime Minister’s plans for No 10 North were “not at all” a demotion for Mr Healey.

She told Sky News: “The Chancellor is working really hard with the Prime Minister, with myself and other Cabinet colleagues.

“You’ll have seen the statement that the Cabinet made, I think now two weeks ago, where we were really clear on our intent to put devolution and community empowerment at the heart of this Government.”

She added: “What we’re all saying, including the Chancellor, is that we’re going to work with partners to ensure that they feel empowered in this process, so they can drive their local economies.”

Mr Burnham said the Treasury’s dual duties of growing the economy and controlling public finances hampered its ability to do either.

“There’s a job to be done around control of public finances. It’s just the dual job of growth and control of public finances (that) sometimes clouds the growth mission,” he said.

“And particularly having No10 leading on that growth mission means you’ve got maximum power to unlock the blockages where they exist in the wider Whitehall system.”

Mr Healey will give a speech on the Government’s economic agenda next month, the Prime Minister also said.

Mr Burnham will meanwhile set out a “10-year plan” for economic and constitutional reform after the October 28 Budget.

The Manchester branch of Downing Street in Heron House is already up and running and officials have said it will cost taxpayers no extra money.

The Prime Minister will work at the outpost once a week as part of his move to push power out of Westminster.

Earlier in the month, Mr Burnham travelled from No10 North to Sheffield for a visit, over the “crumbling” Snake and Woodhead passes.

He said the problem “needs to be addressed”, adding: “Manchester and Sheffield have a lot of complementary industry, there's lots of ties between the two cities and it's ridiculous actually that we have a couple of winding roads and a creaky rail service. It's got to be better than that.

“It cannot be right that the Woodhead Pass, the Snake Pass, are managed as just local roads that are crumbling and not available for large parts of the year.”