Burnham is right: The future lies with devolution

Gill Morris | 1st July 2026 | Comment
(Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)
(Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)

After Andy Burnham's first major speech since the resignation, devolution has been the word on everyone's lips - Gill Morris explains why it's the way forward.

In the words of Bob Dylan, “the times they are a-changin”.

With the end of two-party politics and the arrival of five-way politics, how we are governed — and who holds real power in a populist world — is turning UK politics on its head. A new order is emerging. The political map has been redrawn and it is hard to know where it ends. Red and Blue are OUT and Turquoise, Yellow and Green are IN. The colours of the political landscape and how we are governed changed on 7th May 2026.

Like most people, the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act may have passed you by. It hardly grabbed the headlines. Yet it represents one of the biggest shifts in English governance in a generation, transferring power away from Westminster towards England’s regions. Devolution is happening. It is exciting, disruptive and powerful, built on the principle that decisions should be made closer to the people they affect — by those with skin in the game, backed by real resources and real power. Combined with local government reform, English devolution could become the democratic reset a hyper-centralised Britain desperately needs.

Done well, it will empower people, deliver visible change and challenge the “you’re all the same” and “left behind” rhetoric dominating modern politics. A fully devolved North is on the horizon, with the Midlands, East, South and West being shaped up to follow. Well …

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