Andy Burnham is ending his first week as prime minister by working out of Manchester in the new No 10 North for the first time. It marks a deliberate break from Westminster tradition — a symbol of what his government calls a cultural revolution, captured in the prime minister's own words: “Take your tie off, throw out your textbooks, load up TikTok – we do things a little differently around here.”
The shift in style has been accompanied by a flurry of spending commitments. BBC Verify has calculated that Burnham's first-week pledges total approximately £1.5bn, mostly aimed at tackling the cost of living.
“Andy Burnham ends first week as PM with £1.5bn spending pledges, no-tie culture, and a new No 10 North in Manchester.”
On Monday, outside Downing Street, Burnham said his “first instruction” would be “to end rough sleeping in our country”. The government announced £340m of spending to support at least 3,000 people over five years, funded from existing “uncommitted” housing department budgets. The most recent official data shows around 4,800 people slept rough on a single night in England in 2025, up from 1,800 in 2010.
The next day, the Treasury announced it would cut VAT from domestic electricity bills, knocking an estimated £45 from the typical household’s annual bill from the autumn. The policy will cost £850m in 2026-27, to be funded by scrapping the previous government's digital ID scheme — a scheme the Office for Budget Responsibility had itself described as “unfunded”. That means the VAT cut will still need to be paid for in the next budget through tax rises or spending cuts.
On Wednesday, the government announced a reduction in the cap on bus fares in England from £3 to £2 from 1 January 2027 (excluding London), costing the Department for Transport more than £500m. Most of this will be funded by replacing grants for international climate projects with loans, freeing up funds because the loans are expected to be repaid with interest.
As Burnham settles into office, his social media presence has drawn attention. Channel 4 News asked whether Britain has “its first truly social media savvy prime minister” and whether internet “vibes” are becoming as important as policy. The New Statesman, in a satirical guide to the new regime, described a prime minister who gives speeches “no notes, no lectern”, prefers hugs to handshakes, and plays Oasis. “I’m doing it because the one thing all civil servants tell me – their mate Andy – is that they want more bureaucratic friction back at the heart of government,” Burnham is quoted as saying.
But the question remains: can a cultural shift and £1.5bn of promises — some still unfunded — deliver the change voters were promised?