Devolution, we are told, is ‘the’ keynote policy of our new Prime Minister. A man who wasn’t even a Member of Parliament a few weeks ago, or indeed for the last nine years. A man who seems to be avoiding scrutiny all summer, over his first 60 days in office. The last public figure who understated his dress sense to be underestimated was Virgin’s Richard Branson. Branson kept his entire airline and brand alive by winning rail franchises which came with huge sums of public money. Well, at least Andy doesn’t have Richard’s beard! Andy Burnham is using LGR (Local Government Re-Organisation), the Mayor and Combined Authority-led, lengthy and almost snake-like transformation of much of local government which has been trailed for nearly 25 years in a similar opaque manner.
Few councillors or council officers (let alone the public or media) fully grasp what is going on. In part, because it has been a topic of conversation in the public sector for decades. It’s not all bad – fewer layers of local government is a good thing (but only) if value for money and local consent are possible with bigger local authorities and without enabling tax and spend (further) madness. LGR is similar to the Community Charge, or Poll Tax, which began in the late 1980s and blew up in both Scotland and England with the Poll Tax riots towards the end of Margaret Thatcher’s 18 years in power. LGR began under Tony Blair, gained wide traction under George Osborne and was championed by Michael Gove at the end of the last Conservative Government’s 14 years. Like Frankenstein, LGR limped on under Deputy PM Angela Rayner and then accelerated under Starmerite Minister, ex-London Borough Leader Steve Reed MP.
Those who either suffer from acute insomnia, or want to be sure that Keir Starmer had to go, after two years of inertia, drift and sheer incompetence, should read the speech I was subjected to at the Local Government Association Conference in Bournemouth on 7th July 2026. The then, yet-to-be-confirmed, outgoing (eg sacked) Secretary of State for Local Government, Steve Reed, delivered the conference keynote speech: it was technocratic, deliberately vague, self-serving, and so,so dull.
Andy Burnham is far more dangerous. In his first speech (as the next PM), in Manchester on 29th June, Andy had the skill to add the gloss of positivity. Devolution: the same old LGR (but sold with a Number 10 North and a little charisma). Andy at least sounded to be for the British people: unless you come from London or the South East or work in the wealth-creating sectors.
The harsh reality is Liam Byrne’s ‘we have no money’. The outgoing Brown Government Treasury note post the 2010 General Election. The driver behind LGR: The Mayor and Combined Authority model is slowly being driven through. Only council inertia, local judicial review battles and the fear of enabling local election ‘referendums’ on the lack of popularity of this Labour Government (every May, for the next three years) has slowed the destination. Despite record Central Government tax hikes under every recent Government, now Local Government wants to use LGR to trigger their own stealth taxes.
Squeezing every last drop of money out of ‘rich’ council tax payers and business in London and the South East is the deliberate, rarely spoken goal. Southern parts of our country which have pockets of deprivation and the same pressures (as Manchester and the North) in terms of vulnerable children and pensioner demographic time bombs are going to suffer huge damage to our social and economic life between 2027-29. London is finally facing a long threatened Mansion Tax. A Business Rates Review is promised by the new PM. Masked by talk of a few winners – pubs and (some) high streets. Taxing online Amazon won’t be easy. So modest family homes over a £1.5m value are expected to face , the former Greater Manchester Mayor’s social justice pre-New Labour message , combined with an iron fist from his new Chancellor. Central London Council’s are already facing a 21st ‘window tax’ (circa 1696) style policy.
My own Council , Westminster City Council is facing a £100m funding cut, (announced last Christmas) over the next three years, causing inevitable cuts to council services and significant council tax increases. That’s nearly 50 per cent in Central Government’s decades old grants to my council. And Labour talked about Tory austerity for the last 16 years. Building on their chant ‘Thatcher, Thatcher Milk Snatcher.’
Burnham is following the Rachel Reeves policy of cutting off both our arms and legs on Westminster City Council. Exactly how this latest stealth tax hits London post the Covid challenges depends on which London Borough you live in. But it’s yet another cumulative hit on top of Sadiq Khan’s decade of Council Tax-Mayor Precept hikes. That’s on top of local Mayoral Development Corporation ‘power grabs’ such as the annexation of Oxford Street and other likely MDC’s (which are on the way). Another cost of living hit. The phrase ‘cost of living’ has quietly been dropped since July 2024. No coincidence.
Incidentally, while I am no fan of those who criticise the media to attempt to muzzle it (eg Makerfield day trip campaigners like the actor Hugh Grant). The way the media failed to scrutinise Starmer before the 2024 General Election and to a lesser extent , the muted scrutiny of the Burnham Coronation , has not been most of our media’s finest hour.
I wrote this Conservative Home article the week Burnham was ‘down periscope’ awaiting his coronation as Labour Leader and our next PM. The week the APPG (All Party Parliamentary Group) on local government snuck out their latest blockbuster report – the topic – a pitch to give Councils massive tax raising and spending powers. Don’t say we won’t warned.
What was certain from my conversations with dozens of councillors of all political parties and local government officers at the July 2026 Local Government Association Conference was the ‘change’ PM Burnham is talking about is, at best, skin deep against his navy (not black) tee-shirt. ‘Just about managing (JAM’s) ’, ‘Get Brexit Done ’, ‘Change and Growth’, ‘Devolution’. All PM slogans from the last decade. Talk is cheap. Tax, tax and MORE tax, LGR and far MORE tax is definitely here to stay throughout 2026-29.
Campaigning at a Council by-election in Wandsworth has begun. Please come and join us. Time for a Conservative Home summer people’s uprising led by Kemi -but not in a tee shirt…