The 'slick' CEO who will run Burnham's Britain from the North

Andy Burnham has built his pitch for Downing Street around an eye-catching idea – a second seat of government in Manchester, or “No 10 North”, which he has called the “nerve centre of a rewired Britain”.

Whether this genuinely shifts power away from London or proves a largely symbolic gesture rests largely on the person he has chosen to run it.

Enter Caroline Simpson, the chief executive of the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) – whom Burnham has asked to serve as his deputy chief of staff if – as expected – he enters No 10 next month.

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It is fascinating that people’s skeletal muscle could be linked to their risk of having a heart attack. I am now personally interested in exercises like cycling, planks and pilates, which I enjoy and may have an effect on these muscles.

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The price cap, set by the regulator Ofcom, is set to rise, affecting 5.3 million households on a standard tariff.

How much the price cap will increase from Wednesday, 1 July.

The average gas and electricity bill will jump to £1,862 a year.

There are currently 27 fixed deals available that are cheaper than July’s price cap, with average savings of £285, so act now to save yourself money.  The price cap is going up, but your bills don’t have to.

People are future-proofing their homes for sustainability and to protect themselves against unpredictable energy costs

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Although a return to heatwave conditions is looking increasingly likely for some areas,  the likelihood of such extreme high temperatures or high levels of humidity as last week is currently low.

The UK just experienced it’s hottest June day on record with temperatures topping 36°C in some parts of the country. And while Britain has experienced hotter weather before, like the heatwave in July 2022, something about this one has felt particularly grim-humidity. But why does this make a difference? You can read Clare Wilson’s full article on The i Paper’s website. #heatwave #ukheatwave

If all goes to plan for Burnham, Simpson is set to be based in Manchester, overseeing the devolution programme that the leadership hopeful has promised will transform the country.

Simpson is not a household name, even in Greater Manchester. She lacks the local name recognition that figures like Burnham, Manchester City Council leader Bev Craig or deputy mayor Kate Green carry.

But inside the GMCA, she has been the figure responsible for turning Burnham’s plans for the city region into reality.

Since taking over the GMCA in June 2024, Simpson has run a £3bn-a-year budget and, on a reported salary of £240,000, leads both the city’s governing authority and Transport for Greater Manchester.

She is also credited with driving the Greater Manchester Good Growth Fund, a £1bn programme launched earlier this year to help support each of the city region’s 10 boroughs.

Simpson has said that she did not plan a career in local government in her youth; instead, she studied Japanese and business at Liverpool John Moores University.

Speaking to the Manchester Evening News last year, she said she “fell into my first job which happened to be in the public sector” but now calls herself “a proud public servant”.

Her career has been spent almost entirely in regeneration and economic development, in a string of roles across the West Midlands, the North West and Cheshire.

She then moved to Stockport Council in 2016 – one of the ten councils that make up the GMCA, the body which coordinates transport, housing and economic strategy for the region.

Her work for that council is thought to be a big part of why Burnham picked her to run the GMCA. After becoming Stockport Council’s chief executive in 2022, she is credited with overseeing £1bn of investment in the town centre, according to The Guardian.

The Manchester Evening News reported that Burnham saw Stockport’s transformation as proof that success in central Manchester could be spread to surrounding areas.

After her move to GMCA, Simpson’s Japanese language skills have reportedly had occasional use. Under her tenure, the region signed trade and investment deals with Japanese firms and sent a trade mission to Tokyo and Osaka.

Moving from local to national government is a bigger challenge. Rather than overseeing one region, Simpson’s new job would mean acting as a wider link between the prime minister and Whitehall departments.

Burnham’s plan is a radical rebalancing of power away from London, with No 10 North as its engine.

He wants it to extend public control of utilities such as water, energy and transport, rebuild industry, and regenerate left-behind towns – making “power flow” across the country, as he puts it.

The real test is whether a Manchester office can pry money and decision-making away from Whitehall rather than duplicating it.

Simpson has run a smaller version of this before. Greater Manchester was the first area to receive a single “integrated settlement” from the Government – a £630m lump sum replacing scores of smaller grants, with leaders free to move up to 10 per cent between priorities.

She has some experience of the public ownership Burnham wants, too, if on a far smaller scale, having helped bring the region’s buses and trams back under public control through the Bee Network.

So is she up to the national job? Assessments vary. One senior official told The Guardian she was “effective and very PR-minded, very slick”, and that “with the dead hand of local bureaucracy if you ring her things got done”.

But a second was more guarded, warning that she “sometimes goes along with Andy’s stuff too easily, rather than pushing back until it’s ready and ends up clearing up the mess”.

A former GMCA colleague described her to the Manchester Evening News as “approachable and very hands-on”, someone who “won’t simply accept what she’s being told”.

Simpson’s move also creates an immediate vacancy.

Her departure would leave the GMCA looking for its third chief executive in just over two years, at the same time as 2 million voters choose Burnham’s successor as mayor in a by-election on 30 July.

She has already stepped aside to start planning her handover. In a statement to the media, Simpson said she would continue to “steer the transition to a new Mayor of Greater Manchester over the summer”, but was resigning as Returning Officer – the official in charge of running the by-election – to keep the focus on the contest, handing those duties to her deputies.

The wider question is whether her record running a single region like Greater Manchester will translate to national government.

For now, the person most responsible for showing that No 10 North is more than a gimmick is one most of the country has never heard of.