Burnham ally to unveil ambitious plan to reverse decades of privatisation

Andy Burnham after winning the Makerfield byelection for Labour. The Productive State proposes bonds for shares being issued for failing utility companies. Photograph: Jon Super/AP View image in fullscreen Andy Burnham after winning the Makerfield byelection for Labour. The Productive State proposes bonds for shares being issued for failing utility companies. Photograph: Jon Super/AP Burnham ally to unveil ambitious plan to reverse decades of privatisation Exclusive: Productive State policy paper envisages state regaining control of basics to make life affordable, in fleshing out of Manchesterism Andy Burnham’s government should reverse 40 years of privatisation with a long-term plan to take over failing utilities in administration, issuing “bonds for shares” and setting up state competitors, according to a new blueprint for “Manchesterism”. The policy paper – The Productive State – is released on Monday as Burnham arrives in Westminster to be sworn in as the MP for Makerfield. He widely expected to seek to enter No 10 to replace Keir Starmer in a matter of weeks. Its author, Mathew Lawrence, who is close to Burnham and has worked with him on his thinking on public control of utilities – is publishing the paper with Mainstream, the Labour group that has been the vehicle for Burnham’s leadership ambitions. Miatta Fahnbulleh, the former minister who has been advising Burnham on policy, called it “an important contribution to the debate on how we fix this, deliver the change that people are crying out for and start to rebuild our broken economy”. Lawrence said the essay envisages “a state that owns, invests and provides to make life affordable. A politics that takes back control of the foundations of a decent life: clean water, cheap energy, warm homes, reliable transport, built and run by institutions that answer to the public.” The paper, which has the subtitle A Framework for Manchesterism, criticised the long trend of privatisation of utilities and says it is at the heart of the UK’s growth and productivity struggles – because of the loss of control over the basics that make life more expensive. Though the essay – and Burnham himself – do not advocate for blanket nationalisation likely to cost hundreds of billions, it argues for a framework for greater state intervention to protect the public from soaring costs and from picking up the bill for failing private companies. Lawrence, the director of the thinktank Common Wealth, drafted the essay independently of Burnham inspired in part by his arguments and agenda, and seeking to provide a framework for national renewal. What does Andy Burnham mean by more ‘public control’ of water and energy? He is too vague Read more The Guardian has previously reported that Burnham’s allies have talked about overseeing a 10-year project to take large parts of Britain’s water and energy sectors into public control – likely to start with Thames Water, the stricken utility. Eventually Burnham’s allies want to bring