![\"Andy](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Andy-Burnham-leaves-Downing-Street-e1788277060600.jpg\")
\t\tAndy Burnham has outlined his vision for the UK economy. PA Wire\t<\/p>\n\t\t\tTuesday 01 September 2026 4:48 pm
\n\t\t\t\t\t\u00a0|\u00a0\u00a0Updated:\u00a0<\/p>\n
\t\t\tTuesday 01 September 2026 8:19 pm\n\t<\/p>\n
\t\tAndy Burnham has outlined his vision for the UK economy. PA Wire\t<\/p>\n
Andy Burnham has said the state will be central to his \u201ctheory of growth\u201d in his first statement in the House of Commons as Prime Minister.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Addressing MPs, Burnham said his ideas for the UK economy centres on\u00a0a \u201ctriple helix approach to economic development\u201d in which universities, businesses and the government foster economic growth.\u00a0The \u2018triple helix\u2019 model was first drawn up in the 1990s by economic theorists Henry Etzkowitz and Loet Leydesdorff.<\/p>\n
He told MPs that devolution provides a \u201cclear answer to the question with which this country has long wrestled\u201d on who drives growth.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy theory of growth requires it to be driven with the full authority of the very centre of government, in close partnership with His Majesty\u2019s Treasury,\u201d Burnham said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNumber 10 North<\/a> has been set up with that full focus.\u201d <\/p>\n He said the \u201ctriple helix approach\u201d would \u201cbuild a pro-business culture and an innovation-led economy in all parts of the UK\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n Burnham deflects tax questions<\/p>\n However, Burnham deflected a question on whether he would rule out tax rises<\/a> from the opposition leader Kemi Badenoch.\u00a0Bosses at retailers including Tesco and M&S are the latest of a number of industry leaders calling for Burnham and Chancellor John Healey to not target businesses with more tax hikes.<\/p>\n The Prime Minister said he had already cut two taxes so far, referring to reducing business rates by 20 per cent for pubs and music venues, and a decision to strip VAT from household energy bills.\u00a0<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tRead more<\/p>\n \t\t\tOECD sounds alarm on pension triple lock in challenge to Burnham<\/a><\/p>\n In their first parliamentary sparring session, Badenoch accused Burnham of being fixated on Margaret Thatcher, \u201ca woman who became Prime Minister before I was born\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHe is living in the past and wants to take us back to the 1970s,\u201d Badenoch said.\u00a0\u201cOn this side of the house, we are for the future. We are for the future, Mr Speaker, not the past.\u201d<\/p>\n But Burnham used his first address to provide a sweeping view of his \u201cdiagnosis\u201d for Britain\u2019s economic ills, saying that some places had been \u201cdrifting\u201d for 40 years. Some of the blame went towards a \u201cfailed economic model which does not trickle down\u201d.<\/p>\n Public control and devolution<\/p>\n The former Manchester mayor said his personal experience of leadership over the city offered him further credibility to push for \u201cpublic control\u201d<\/a> over services such as transport and water. He said privatisation of the latter sector \u201cstands as a leaking monument to that approach \u2013 a country run in the private rather than public interest\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOur job here is to make it real by taking a place-first rather than party-first approach. It starts with reasserting basic standards for Britain, that this is a country where no one sleeps rough, and no community is blighted by an illegal waste tip, and from there, working together to build a new sense of optimism around the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe can make this next decade better than the last.\u201d<\/p>\n Much of the first session on Tuesday was also spent on Ukraine, with Burnham paying tribute to his Tory predecessors for standing by the country in the face of aggression from Russia.\u00a0<\/p>\n He also paid tribute to Sir Keir Starmer, who announced his resignation earlier on Tuesday, as having \u201cgiven this country a lifetime of public service\u201d.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\tRead more<\/p>\n