Andy Burnham used his first major speech since launching his bid for the Labour leadership to set out an "innovation nation" vision for Britain, built around deeper devolution, a championing of science and entrepreneurship, and a fundamental rethink of how young people are educated and trained. Speaking in Manchester, the Mayor of Greater Manchester and clear frontrunner for the leadership argued that Westminster is "broken" and pledged to "fix politics" through a new model of regional power-sharing, including what he called a "No 10 in the North" – an extended Whitehall operation based in Manchester designed to push devolution out across the whole of the UK.

The speech drew a swift response from business and education groups, broadly welcoming Burnham's ambition while sounding notes of caution over some of the detail.

Universities body welcomes ambition but flags education risk

The National Centre for Universities and Business (NCUB) said it welcomed the ambition set out in the speech, particularly the call for clearer industrial priorities and targeted "good growth" funding. However, the organisation urged the incoming Labour leader to bear in mind how closely science, innovation and entrepreneurship are bound up with higher education funding, given the emphasis in Burnham's speech – informed by the Milburn Review – on reorienting school education away from a single-minded focus on university entry.

NCUB chief executive Dr Joe Marshall said universities' contribution to local growth went far beyond supplying skills and talent, extending into the research and innovation activity needed to seed the next generation of businesses. He argued that achieving parity between academic and technical routes should not come at the expense of university funding, given how interlinked university finances are with this wider activity.

Dr Marshall went further, warning that supporting technical education at the expense of higher education was not a "good growth" approach. While it might bring short-term benefits in reducing the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET), he cautioned that in the longer run it risked fragmenting the research and innovation system and undermining the role universities play in their local economies. He said the collapse of a university would be devastating for the local economy in many cases, and that this risk needed to be factored into any new approach to funding post-16 education.

Despite these concerns, NCUB struck a broadly positive note, welcoming Burnham's support for more cross-UK partnerships between regions with complementary industrial clusters, and his plan to further consolidate public-private partnerships – both of which, it said, would support progress on the UK Industrial Strategy.

CBI: ambition needs a delivery plan

The CBI also responded positively to the substance of the speech. Chief executive Rain Newton-Smith said business would welcome Burnham's clear focus on growth and delivery, and that applying the "positive, dynamic and collaborative" approach that has driven growth in Manchester at a UK-wide level would give industry a practical agenda to support.

She said firms would also welcome his commitments to sound public finances, fiscal discipline and investor confidence, along with practical steps such as backing innovation and scale-ups, boosting international trade, and tackling youth unemployment through stronger apprenticeships. Business leaders would similarly be encouraged by plans to use devolution to spread prosperity more widely – while London remains vital to UK growth, she said, helping other regions attract investment and make decisions reflecting local priorities was essential to the wider economic picture.

However, Newton-Smith struck a more pointed note on delivery, saying that while firms support many of the ambitions, they will need a clear plan, particularly on business rates. She warned that any move towards greater intervention in markets such as transport and utilities must not deter investment, arguing that public-private partnerships remain the most effective and affordable way to upgrade critical infrastructure while crowding in private capital. She added that a change of prime minister does not change the underlying economic realities the country faces: public spending alone cannot ease the cost-of-living crisis, and business must do much of the heavy lifting if firms are to drive growth – which means government must first address the rising cost of doing business.

Housing takes centre stage in leadership pitch

Housing policy featured prominently in the lead-up to Burnham's leadership bid. Shortly before signalling his intentions, he discussed the issue at length with Gary Haynes of Voicescape on the Social Housing Podcast, covering the £39 billion social housing settlement, reform of Homes England, action on rogue landlords, and Greater Manchester's ambition to build more social homes than it loses to Right to Buy by 2027.

On the scale of recent progress, Burnham argued that more had changed in housing policy over the past five years than in the previous two to three decades combined, pointing to the Renters' Rights Act and the £39 billion social housing funding secured by Angela Rayner before her departure from government. He said he would like to see the maximum possible share of that funding directed towards social housing – indeed, he said he would devote all of it there.

He set out a personal philosophy rooted in "Housing First", arguing that Britain has not treated decent housing as a national priority since the immediate post-war decades. Since the 1980s, he said, housing has increasingly been treated as a commodity to buy and sell rather than a basic need – and that mindset, in his view, is the root of the current housing crisis.

On reform, Burnham said Homes England needed a significant shake-up, arguing there was still too much scheme-by-scheme micromanagement. He wants the agency to act more like an investor working alongside city regions – backing them, letting them get on with delivery, and holding them accountable for cumulative outcomes across an area like Greater Manchester rather than scrutinising every individual project.

Voicescape managing director Gary Haynes, who hosted the conversation, said it had been fascinating to speak to Burnham shortly before his announcement, and praised his consistent commitment to expanding social housing, stronger investment and devolved delivery. Chris Fletcher, chief executive of Visualsoft, backed Burnham's argument that regions should have more control over their own economic future, saying the North East has the talent and ambition to become a leading UK tech hub – provided greater devolved powers are matched with long-term funding to back them up.

Nathan Emerson, chief executive of Propertymark, welcomed ambitions that put housing at the heart of UK government policy, saying it was essential that the right homes are built in the right places at the right time to meet the needs of a growing population. He stressed that continued investment in private ownership and the rented sector, alongside social and council housing, remains vital to meeting the needs of a diverse housing market and delivering the target of 1.5 million affordable and sustainable homes in England by 2029. Any major reform, he added, must be carefully scrutinised to ensure it delivers on its intended outcomes, with greater local control potentially supporting decision-making that better reflects regional housing needs.

Concerns over youth unemployment and the limits of devolution

Kevin Fitzgerald, UK managing director at Employment Hero, welcomed Burnham's focus on employment, noting that more than a million young people were not in education, employment or training (NEET) in the first quarter of 2026 alone. He said young people across the UK need more opportunities to build experience and start their careers, and that any regional plans to bolster communities was a positive step – though he stressed that any strategy needs to work for the whole of the UK, given that the jobs market recovery is likely to be uneven across the country.

Drawing on his platform's data tracking business expansion across UK SMEs, Fitzgerald said that while London had seen a recent resurgence in hiring, up 6.1% quarter-on-quarter, the longer-term trend showed small businesses across the rest of the country had been the ones providing job opportunities, despite rising employment costs and regulatory burden. Employment in the north was up 5.7% year-on-year compared with flat growth in London, he said, while in the east employment was growing by more than 10% year-on-year.

He said this showed regional businesses remain committed to growth, with real opportunities for young people – but cautioned that this progress was not happening under easy conditions. Recent research from his organisation found that well over half of UK businesses believe employing staff has become more complex over the past year, with more than a third scaling back full-time hiring as a result. If that pressure continues, he warned, it risks limiting the opportunities available to the next generation, and addressing it will require a more joined-up approach bringing together SMEs, educators, parents and local policymakers to make employment more accessible and sustainable.

Dr Valentin Boboc, senior economist at the Institute of Economic Affairs, offered a more sceptical assessment of the devolution agenda underpinning the speech. He agreed that growth cannot be legislated into existence from Whitehall, and welcomed Burnham's call for a more streamlined state with decisions pushed towards local government. However, he questioned whether the will exists to give local government genuine responsibilities and regulatory independence alongside new powers. The real value of devolution in driving growth, he argued, lies in allowing regions to test different regulatory environments and fiscal programmes and compete to discover what works best, incentivised by being able to retain the gains from growth locally. If devolution amounts to handing out funding while leaving every other rule unchanged, he warned, it will make little material difference to the obstacles to growth the country currently faces.