22OCT

Burnham promises mayors devolved innovation money from 2028

2 min read

16:30UTC

The Prime Minister told a Manchester summit that established English mayors will get later-stage innovation funding, though the devolved fund starts only in 2028.

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TechnologyAssessed

Key takeaway

Mayors get devolved innovation money only from 2028; UKRI keeps the nearer £1bn.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham told the Innovation Nation summit in Manchester on 9 October that England's established mayoral authorities will get dedicated later-stage innovation funding for the first time⁠¹. The press release dates the devolution of the Local Innovation Partnerships Fund to established mayors "from 2028". Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are outside it, and government will only "explore" the idea with the devolved administrations.

The money available sooner is £1bn over four years for high-growth innovation clusters in the Industrial Strategy's priority sectors, paid out by UKRI from the centre. A new unit, No.10 North, will build cluster partnerships. Its first partnership links the Northern Growth Corridor with the Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor.

The northern push also has a capital side: in September the British Business Bank pledged money to a scale-up fund for the North of England.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Andy Burnham, the Prime Minister, has said elected mayors in parts of England will get their own money to help local technology and science businesses grow. That change starts in 2028. Sooner, a £1bn pot over four years will support groups of companies in fast-growing industries, but it will still be handed out centrally by UK Research and Innovation, the national science funder. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are not part of the plan.

Deep Analysis

Root Causes

Innovation funding in England has been allocated mainly through national competitions, which reward places that already hold universities and research labs. The Oxford-Cambridge corridor and London win more because they already have more.

Devolving later-stage money targets a different gap: growth funding for companies after the research stage, which national grant competitions rarely supply.

What could happen next?

Consequence
Until 2028, the main new innovation money stays under UKRI's central control.
Risk
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland may press for equivalent arrangements, since the release offers them only talks.

Source Landscape

This story draws on neutral-leaning sources

Primary parallel: England's nine Regional Development Agencies, created in 1999, ran regional innovation budgets until the coalition government abolished them in 2012. Their programmes ended with them, showing how quickly agency-based regional money can disappear.

Counter-parallel: Germany funds its Fraunhofer applied-research institutes jointly, with the federal government and the Länder sharing base funding. Regions there hold a standing stake in research money rather than a devolved pot with a start date.

Consensus view: The Number 10 release presents devolution as giving established mayoral authorities later-stage innovation money for the first time, with the £1bn cluster fund and No.10 North as the nearer-term tools.

Counter-view: The Public Accounts Committee, as City AM reported on 21 October, found half of UKRI funding going to London, the South East and the East of England, with the North's share up from 12% to 20% over five years. Routing the £1bn cluster fund through UKRI keeps the allocation with the body whose spread the committee questioned.

Key tension: Whether mayors gain real control over innovation money before 2028, or the centre keeps the decisions until then.

Sources:Prime Minister's Office, 10 Downing Street

Mentions:Andy Burnham →Local Innovation Partnerships Fund →No.10 North →UKRI →Northern Growth Corridor →Oxford-Cambridge Growth Corridor →Scotland →Wales →Northern Ireland →England →Public Accounts Committee →City AM →Cambridge →London →Germany →British Business Bank →Greater Manchester →Downing Street →

First Reported In

Update #16 · Stryker agrees option to buy CMR Surgical

Prime Minister's Office, 10 Downing Street· 22 Oct 2026

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Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Editorial standards.