On 20 July, the new Prime Minister, Andy Burnham stood in Downing Street, and set out his mission and vision.
His focus was on changing and doing politics differently, of placing devolution at the centre of his programme, and recognising the fundamental challenges that people and communities face, particularly around the cost of living. A new ten year plan will be published later this year.
Initial announcements featured machinery of government changes, which were outlined in a written Ministerial statement on 21 July, and included the research and innovation portfolio and budget being moved into an expanded Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, whilst other functions of the Department for Innovation, Skills and Technology will be transferred.
An Office for the Prime Minister and Cabinet, with Number 10 North (based in Manchester), has been created, which will have responsibility for devolution and local economic growth. John Healey is the new Chancellor of the Exchequer, having worked previously in the Treasury in the 2000s, where he took a keen interest in strengthening growth in the regions. Burnham has also re-established the National Economic Council where the regional Mayors will have a leading role in influencing the UK’s economic policy.
Place and devolution will be the central drivers of this government’s economic agenda framed around skills, innovation, employment, and physical and digital infrastructure. The HE sector needs the ability to inform, influence and shape policy and funding and investment decisions. And tell a compelling story of how universities, as contributors to both the supply and demand sides of the economy, are in tandem with the government’s emphasis upon place-based collaboration.
Pooling capacity through regional HE groups, such as Yorkshire Universities, Universities for North East England, and Midlands Innovation, alongside our respective associate mechanisms, represent effective instruments for imparting a distinct HE contribution to local and regional growth plans.
Mayors of learning
In a similar manner in which value is attached to the regional mayors coming together to work on national missions, and being given the space to share learning, propose new policies, and potentially build new partnerships, our three respective regional HE associations have convened a UK-wide forum of regional HE groups.
Stemming from an initial roundtable, held at the UK Real Estate and Infrastructure Investment Forum (UKREiiF), in Leeds in May 2025, the forum presents an opportunity for members to share their experiences and lessons of place-based partnerships.
The focus of attention has been devolution; local government reform; NHS; research and innovation; knowledge exchange; access to funding and finance; employment and skills; sectors; clusters; enterprise; entrepreneurship; and regeneration. We have also prioritised the role of universities in international trade and investment, supporting the growing visibility and impact of mayors in promoting the regions, and illustrating how HE is both locally rooted and globally connected.
Any regional HE body can join the forum, with the geographies and institutional makeup of the individual collaborations being varied, which reflects the diversity of university configurations within the UK’s nations and regions. The forum, importantly, includes members from places that have devolved governments, including mayors and Mayoral Authorities, in situ, and those that do not.
On a practical level, as more devolution comes to the regions, the capacity and capability of mayoral authorities in England to manage and steward new responsibilities and funding will come into sharp focus. Here, there is a role for universities to provide a valuable contribution, which would be accelerated, enhanced and sustained if national and regional incentives and funding backed and underpinned this.
Capability, not capacity
We know that mayoral authorities are at various stages of maturity.
Those who have been involved directly in building devolved institutions have offered advice that universities might want to consider and reflect upon. For example, Steve Skelton, who has worked in Liverpool City Region and Hull and East Yorkshire, writes that “capability does not all need to sit in one institution, and different places will be able to access different labour markets. Some [Mayoral Authorities] will be able to draw on deep pools of public, private, university and agency expertise. Others will find it harder to recruit the technical and professional roles needed. The question is where does this capability need to sit for the local system to work? Not how big should the [Mayoral Authority] team be?”
In a similar vein, in reviewing lessons from Japan for the UK’s devolution reforms, Abigail Taylor and colleagues at the Local Policy Innovation Partnership Hub, have recommended that secondments should be a strategic tool of devolution. Having staff from universities working in Mayoral Authorities, and vice-versa, is an effective way of surfacing new ideas from within and across sectors for the broader benefit of the regional eco-system.
With the advent of integrated settlements, there will be more flexibility for Mayoral Authorities to use their unrestricted funding to commission partners, including universities, to help deliver activities. Now is the time for universities to step up and work alongside Mayoral Authorities to identify and define and deliver regional priorities.
Andy Burnham has set out the direction of travel for his new government in relation to devolution, and to improving prosperity in every “postcode.” Against this backdrop, our view is that working more collaboratively across the HE sector, within regions and between regions, is now mission critical.
