by Paul Booth
Andy Burnham's speech on 29th June set out a new model for driving growth in every postcode in the UK. Beyond structural reorganisation, devolved decision-making and ‘Manchesterism’, Burnham set out that No. 10 North will support ‘places’ across the UK on three clear tasks: reform of essential utilities, reindustrialisation, and regeneration.
The wider context for Burnham's speech is the structural reorganisation of government – the shift towards devolved decision-making and the creation of strategic authorities through local government reorganisation (LGR). While the devolution effort has progressed in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, England is going through the biggest redesign of local government in a generation. As devolution expands and councils reorganise into larger strategic authorities, places have greater responsibility—not just for delivering services, but for shaping and growing local economies, investment and long-term prosperity.
Place-based growth isn’t ‘just another’ economic development strategy (like regeneration or levelling-up). It is a way of organising – of aligning all the assets within a ‘place’ (housing, skills & education, transport, planning, health, public services and private investment) behind one shared vision that has at its core the objective of improving outcomes for the people who live and work there. These reforms are what make place-based growth possible, as Burnham and ‘Manchesterism’ have demonstrated.
Good growth in every postcode
The clear objective is ‘good growth in every British postcode’ – a phrase Burnham used six times, emphasising that his objectives are about ‘raising living standards of every person in this land’ and building ‘a country wired to work for ordinary people rather than against them’. No. 10 North will be the nerve centre, but the mission will be led by the places that are ready to act.
Three tasks, one common thread. Each comes down to the same question: can a place use local government reorganisation and the creation of strategic authorities to turn ambition into something bankable, governable and deliverable?
- Reform of utilities means greater public control over essentials like water, housing, energy and transport, so places can position these assets for investment that will drive local growth.
- Reindustrialisation means setting credible industrial ambitions and supporting places to position their assets to enable investors to commit.
- Regeneration of places means real partnership in those places (within and across the public and private sectors) – a shared plan, consolidating investment, and genuinely co-creating value together.
So, the destination is good growth everywhere – not concentrated in a handful of cities – built on what each place already has to offer. Place-based growth is to be driven by the people who live and work in those places and built around the assets, capabilities and strengths of each place, rather than a template applied from the centre.
Proof in practice
We're commenting on this from direct experience rather than as political observers. It's exactly how Transform is working in Anglesey, supporting local, regional and central government authorities and private sector partners to deliver the Anglesey Freeport and the North Wales AI Growth Zone – two live examples of what Burnham's speech points towards.
The numbers tell the story. Anglesey has lost 3,000 local jobs over 20 years (15% of its workforce), and 8,000–9,000 people leave the island every day just to get to work. The Freeport is projected to create around 5,500 jobs on the island and up to 13,000 across North Wales; a fully realised AI Growth Zone would add a further 3,500 jobs.
Underneath both projects sits the same work – building on what a place already has to offer by positioning strategic assets, making the case for investment, coordinating across tiers of government, and keeping a complicated mix of public and private interests pulling in the same direction. This is what Transform does: helping places close the gap between what they want to achieve and what it takes to get there. In practice, five connected strands:
- Building the business case – identifying a place's existing assets (people, grid access, industrial land) and working out what needs to happen to make them genuinely investible.
- Setting the strategy – turning a leadership team's vision into a strategy that investors and delivery partners get behind.
- Running the programme – governance that works, risk managed, communities at the centre rather than the margins.
- Building the investment case and pipeline – scoping opportunities, securing investors, navigating the complexity of every tier of government having a stake in the outcome.
- Designing the operating model – so delivery keeps going long after the initial push.
No two places need all five, and never in the same order or shape. What works in North Wales won't be what works in Dumfries, Derby, Dartford or Derry. However, the principle never changes – the plan has to be built on a place's assets and led and owned by the people who live and work there.
A mission-led way of working
Mariana Mazzucato's thinking on mission-led growth is useful here. Her argument: the state shouldn't pick winners – it should set bold, cross-sector missions and use its convening power to make markets serve these missions so that public and private sectors genuinely co-create value together.
Mazzucato emphasises that governments shouldn’t simply outsource capacity to consultants. It's a fair challenge, and Burnham has echoed it, warning against ‘an insufficiently accountable outsourced state’ – the familiar model where consultants parachute in, write a report, and move on. Mazzucato is no distant critic, either – she's advised Burnham directly and helped shape Greater Manchester's growth strategy. For Manchesterism, this is a working principle rather than a theoretical tension.
We agree, and it's exactly why Transform sits alongside local, regional and central government officials and business leaders as a partner: embedded, accountable, and judged on outcomes, not deliverables. Impact-driven, because transformation is the goal, not the report that describes it. Warm and client-first, working with you rather than for you or at you. Confident enough to bring a strong point of view, collaborative enough to make it land. That's the model Transform has built – the depth for complex, high-stakes delivery, with the openness of a partner that cares about getting the right things done in the right way.
Delivering good growth, together
No two place-based growth strategies will look the same, but every one will need to be bold and mission-driven, and every one will need the people of local places – local authorities, businesses and communities – to chart the course together, with clear governance, a predictable investment climate, investable assets, and committed investors behind them.
Then it's a matter of getting on with it. As Burnham put it, ‘the country spends too much time arguing and not enough time doing’. The places that pair bold ambition with the discipline to deliver and businesses willing to roll up their sleeves alongside them are the ones that will turn this moment into good growth on the ground.
If you're a local authority, a business or any other key stakeholder interested in driving place-based growth and ready to move from ambition to delivery, we’d love to have a conversation. Get in touch with Director of Local Government, Housing and Communities, Julia Brennan, or Director of Trade & Growth, Jose Puyana, or find out more at transformuk.com.