Andy Burnham is ending his first week as prime minister working out of Manchester in the new No 10 North, having made a series of spending commitments totalling about £1.5bn. The pledges, mostly aimed at tackling the cost of living, include a cap on bus fares, a VAT cut on electricity, and £340m to end rough sleeping. But his first electoral test comes next week, as voters in Greater Manchester prepare to elect his replacement as mayor — a role he held for nearly a decade and turned into a national platform.
On Monday, Burnham said his “first instruction” would be to end rough sleeping. The government announced £340m in spending to support at least 3,000 people over five years, funded from existing uncommitted budgets in the housing department. Official data showed about 4,800 people sleeping rough on a single night in England in 2025, up from 1,800 in 2010.
“Burnham's £1.5bn first-week pledges face scrutiny as Greater Manchester votes for his mayoral successor.”
On Tuesday, the Treasury announced it would cut VAT from domestic electricity bills in the current financial year, knocking an estimated £45 from the typical household’s annual bill from the autumn. The £850m cost is to be funded by scrapping the previous government’s digital ID scheme, which had been estimated to cost £1.8bn over three years. However, the Office for Budget Responsibility had made clear that the digital ID scheme was itself “unfunded”, implying the tax cut will have to be funded in the next budget, either by tax rises or spending cuts elsewhere.
On Wednesday, the government announced it would reduce the cap on bus fares in England (excluding London) from £3 to £2 from 1 January 2027, costing the Department for Transport more than £500m. Most of this would be found by replacing grants for international climate projects with loans, which the government expects to be paid back in full plus interest.
Burnham’s first electoral test arrives next week when Greater Manchester voters elect his successor. Burnham left parliament in 2017 to become the first elected mayor of Greater Manchester, winning with 63% of the vote. He was re-elected in 2021 and again in 2024, winning every council ward except one. His time as mayor saw Manchester’s inner-city living standards rise more than anywhere else in the UK since 2010, and the city region’s annual growth rate of 3.1% over the last decade meant its economy performed twice as well as the UK’s. But growth has been focused mainly in the city itself, and turnout at the 2024 election was just 32%.
“The region is predominantly Labour land but quite socially conservative outside Manchester itself,” said Jon Tonge, a professor of politics at the University of Liverpool, who was born in Bury. The towns and villages of Oldham, Rochdale, and Wigan are largely working-class post-industrial Labour heartlands, not the thriving metropolis of Manchester.
Burnham’s style has also marked his first week: no tie, no lectern, no notes. In his speech outside Downing Street, he said, “We do things a little differently around here.” Whether that approach can sustain him through the scrutiny of his spending pledges and the outcome of the Manchester election remains to be seen.