Assuming Andy Burnham becomes Prime Minister some media sources are saying his number one domestic priority will be devolution of power, and budgets to the regions. If this happens is it s step in the right direction? It could be and it should be. With Burnham we start down this road with one rare and promising advantage.He knows and understands the issues. He knows what Bank of Time means. And he knows that the excessive centralisation of financial power in the Treasury has produced second rate local authority governance in large areas of southern England. These areas, united by myopia and concentrated south of Birmingham are where the system first broke down.
If you treat local councils and their leaders as children for one or two generations it really is no surprise if they act like children years later. How much vision, how much civic pride, how much judgment do children have? There is your answer. There are rare exceptions, but over forty years plus in the south they have hardly been seen. And the policy failure fault is rightly laid on the parents, in Whitehall.
If Burnham brings in some sweeping devolutionary changes could these take root and flower in a generation without cross-party consensus? Probably not, but I remain unsure. For example how do you persuade the believers in myopia in rural Berkshire to genuinely work together with the leaders of urban Reading and urban Slough to produce regeneration outcomes that we want to visit! ? And how do you ensure that these local leaders, with new powers so they are also responsible for putting national needs for their areas ahead of locals fear of change do just that? Or, in London how do you make urban Richmond upon Thames give full weight to the long term future generational needs of its children in the sixty years to come? Again can these goals, difficult to understand for a people fed nonsense by large sections of the press for ever, all to be delivered by one party in one parliamentary term of five years? I am in favour of a free and trusted press. I am not in favour of an irresponsible and unpatriotic press that puts short term profits for itself ahead of the long term needs of my planet. There is a price to be paid for freedom. It is not a million price, it is an acceptance that exploitation of conflict, of differences can and has caused deep harm. Maybe we need a new media responsibility policy? Yes, some freedom to act irresponsibly must be sacrificed. If you publish misleading information those responsible will be penalised without delay. The list of indictments the irresponsible media carries is heavy: populist politics based on ignorance; Brexit based on denying common sense-trade barriers have cost; housing-prices are double; climate change-go outside; the other point of view (do you know Putins reasons for Ukraine or Tehran’s reasons for resisting, ) for example?
Well Back to Burnham. Maybe we are going see? Here’s a thought. It would shake me up. That Burnham and Simon Dudley, ex-leader of Windsor and Maidenhead council., recent disgraced Reform UK housing spokesman get together. . Now that would be a wake-up call. These are the only two politicians I can think of who know the problems. But if I see him talking to the housing oligarchy I will cry again. It will mean he is as naive as Starmer and his Whitehall advisers.
Solving the homes crisis means avoiding vested interests whilst remotely re-assuring them that you understand incentives and have zero intention of acting unfairly towards those whose assets have value endorsed by the market.
I wonder if B has thought through these issues in his new capacity?
Ian Campbell
27 June 2026
