Prime Minister Andy Burnham has established a powerful new Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, led by his ally Louise Haigh, in a major Whitehall shake-up. The new department will oversee operations at No 10 in London and the forthcoming No 10 North in Manchester, absorbing parts of the Cabinet Office, Treasury, and Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government.
The government stated that the reform ensures local economic growth policy and regional empowerment are no longer isolated, positioning No 10 North as the dominant driver of the UK's economy. Teams responsible for local growth and devolution from the Treasury and housing ministry will move to the No 10 North unit under Haigh's oversight. However, sources stressed that Housing Secretary Angela Rayner retains control of devolution policy, with only strategy functions transferred from her department.
Other changes include the breakup of the Cabinet Office, with parts moving into a new agency called OneGov, controlled by Cabinet Secretary Antonia Romeo, handling government HR functions. The equality office moves to the housing ministry, digital ID to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the public sector fraud authority to the Department for Work and Pensions, and the investment security unit to the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade.
The government will offer relocation packages to civil servants willing to move north to the No 10 operation. A No 10 spokesperson said the shift is about taking power out of SW1 and closer to people's lives, adding that staff, including senior staffer Caroline Simpson, are already working there. Burnham will work from Manchester at least one day a week. The overhaul was announced via a written ministerial statement in the House of Lords.
The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology is abolished, with most functions returning to the business and culture departments, except for artificial intelligence, which moves to the new Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, with a new prime ministerial AI adviser and Minister for AI Kanishka Narayan getting a cabinet seat.
