Andy Burnham has spent years arguing that devolution is the key to boosting the fortunes of regional economies. On that, he is right. The evidence from Scotland, Wales and many successful countries is clear: decisions taken closer to the people they affect usually produce better outcomes.
But if Burnham genuinely wants England’s regions to prosper, he needs to ask a bigger question: is he seeking a few more powers for the existing mayoral system, or is he prepared to argue for the constitutional change England actually needs?
Yorkshire illustrates the problem perfectly
With a population of around 5.5 million, Yorkshire’s population is larger than Scotland and has an economy comparable to many European regions such as Hesse in Germany that govern themselves through elected legislatures. Yet Yorkshire has no single devolved institution. Instead, it has been divided into four mayoral combined authorities, each negotiating separately with Westminster and each operating with limited delegated powers.
This is not simply a Yorkshire problem. It is the weakness at the heart of England’s devolution settlement.
Scotland has a Parliament. Wales has the Senedd. Northern Ireland has Stormont. London has a mayor backed by an elected assembly. England’s regions, by contrast, have largely been offered what amounts to second-class devolution with executive mayors with restricted powers but without the legislative competence or financial freedom enjoyed elsewhere in the United Kingdom.
Not genuine devolution – decentralised administration
The limitations are obvious. Yorkshire cannot legislate for itself. It cannot shape significant tax policy or retain the revenues needed to plan investment. It has no regional legislature to scrutinise executive decisions or develop policy across the whole region. Transport, housing, skills and economic development are divided between separate authorities, each working within its own patch while negotiating with Whitehall for funding.
Why would any region choose to govern itself like this?
Burnham himself has repeatedly argued that Greater Manchester needs more powers. He is right. But the answer is not simply to pile more responsibility on mayors. It is to recognise that England’s entire model is incomplete.
Economic growth requires more than delegated responsibilities and competitive bidding rounds. It requires stable funding, democratic accountability and the ability to plan for decades ahead rather than from one spending review to the next. When decisions on transport, housing, skills, planning and investment are made together by an accountable regional government with the power to plan long-term, economic policy can be joined up rather than fragmented across competing authorities and short-term national programmes.
England remains the anomaly. Every other nation of the UK has its own legislature. Across Europe, regional government with meaningful powers is commonplace. Yet England continues to rely on a patchwork of combined authorities whose powers depend largely on what Westminster is prepared to delegate.
A Yorkshire Parliament would provide democratic accountability, legislative authority and the ability to develop a single long-term strategy for transport, housing, skills, planning and growth across the whole region. It would replace fragmentation with coherent regional government and give Yorkshire the constitutional capacity to take responsibility for its own future.
Andy Burnham has become England’s most influential advocate for devolution. He has the platform to lead this debate. The real question is whether he is prepared to argue not just for a stronger version of today’s settlement, but also for genuine regional self-government across England.
The debate is no longer whether England should be devolved. It is whether England is willing to move beyond a system of second-class devolution towards genuine regional government.
Yorkshire should not have to wait for Westminster to catch up.
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