Civil servants in Whitehall have reportedly been offered incentives to move from London to work in the new No 10 North.
Interim location and leadership
The ‘Manchester Digital Campus’ at the home of the former Toys ‘R’ Us retail store was previously tipped to become Andy Burnham’s flagship northern outpost. However, it won’t be complete until 2032 so the interim location will be Heron House in Manchester city centre, in the building currently occupied by the intelligence service GCHQ.
The Northern branch of 10 Downing Street will be overseen by newly appointed cabinet minister Louise Haigh. Haigh, who is the first secretary of state and a strong Burnham ally, has been asked to lead a new Office for the Prime Minister and the Cabinet (OPMC), which will give her control of both No 10 in London and its northern equivalent.
Relocation packages and staff moves
Civil servants working for government departments based in London have also been lured with relocation packages to encourage them to move to Manchester, according to the BBC. The BBC also reports that at least three senior figures at the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) have agreed to work at No 10 North. Staff at the GMCA reportedly only found out after seeing their colleagues on TV greeting the new prime minister in Downing Street.
AI taskforce and economic impact
There are also plans to establish an Artificial Intelligence (AI) taskforce within the OPMC, aimed at driving the Government’s overall strategy on AI. Leader of the House of Lords, Baroness Angela Smith, said No 10 North would be a dominant driver of the UK's economy.
She said: “Today, we are fundamentally rewiring the state, changing the geography of government to deliver a stronger, more strategic centre that empowers local leaders, and acts as the engine room for driving economic growth across the whole country.”
Report recommendations
As for how the northern headquarters will operate, the answer may be found in a report by Re:State – a public services think tank which Mr Burnham was involved with until he stepped down as mayor of Greater Manchester. Plan for Government: Building No 10 North was written by Dr Simon Kaye, director of policy and research. It suggests around 300 staff should be employed at the flagship outpost within 18 months, suggesting the transfer of teams from certain Whitehall departments, including the Treasury, Cabinet Office, and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
No 10 North must not merely be symbolic, warns Kayne, nor must it be too small and “a road to larger and more complex central government”. The report concludes: “No 10 North can succeed only if it is designed from the start to be an exemplar of wider changes to how the State works. It must strengthen the part of central government that immediately supports the Prime Minister, while systematically transferring power, money and responsibility outwards, and building a very different relationship with local and regional governments around England.”
Reactions
Henri Murison, the chief executive at the Northern Powerhouse Partnership, has welcomed the idea. “The revolution will be Andy Burnham’s contribution to Makerfield. It will also be his enduring legacy to Greater Manchester, having taken the region from strength to strength while renewing his promise to the North: to create a genuine counterweight to London across both sides of the Pennines,” he told this paper earlier this month.
