Burnham to send high-performing civil servants to mayoral offices

The UK government, under Prime Minister Andy Burnham, is launching a major pilot scheme to deploy high-performing civil servants to work directly within mayoral offices across England. This initiative forms part of broader efforts to transfer decision-making power and administrative authority from central government departments directly into the hands of local leaders.

Scheduled to launch in the autumn, the pilot scheme will see every mayoral authority receive between five and 10 civil servants for a duration of six to nine months. All 18 mayors will have the opportunity to request civil servants equipped with the specific skill sets required to address their region's unique challenges.

Stock photo for illustration only, not from the actual event

Prime Minister Andy Burnham stated that the scheme would assist communities in unleashing and unlocking their own potential. The announcement followed a virtual meeting between local mayors and the prime minister, who conducted the session from his newly established No 10 North office based in Manchester.

Over the past decade, a series of devolution deals have granted mayoral authorities—comprising local councils and elected mayors—powers and funding over policy areas such as transport and housing. Strategic mayoral authorities have been established in regions including Greater Manchester, the West Midlands, and West Yorkshire, while other areas like Surrey and Cornwall remain without them.

Alongside the staff deployment, the government announced further measures, including a new civil service fast stream pilot aimed at local authority roles in Yorkshire and the Humber. The fast stream programme typically recruits between 700 and 1,400 individuals annually. Applications for this new regional scheme will open in October, with successful candidates commencing work in September 2027. Furthermore, the Future Leaders Scheme will be extended to staff in mayoral and local authorities alongside a digital devolution data-sharing model.

Burnham spent nearly a decade serving as the Mayor of Greater Manchester and has repeatedly pledged to decentralise authority since taking office as prime minister. During his leadership campaign, he established the Downing Street team in Manchester known as No 10 North. Successive governments have targeted reducing London-based roles by 12,000, with recent figures indicating that 19.6% of civil servants are currently based in the capital, a figure that has steadily declined over the past four years.

"Andy Burnham is again putting metro mayoral regions first with this staffing trial. Local authorities across the board should be given the same funding and staffing opportunities if he truly wants to grow every region in England."

Zöe Franklin MP, Liberal Democrat local government spokesperson

Source: BBC Politics