What Andy Burnham’s Premiership Means for Charities | 2026

Two Weeks In: What a Burnham Government Signals for Civil Society

Andy Burnham became Prime Minister on 20 July, succeeding Keir Starmer after an uncontested leadership contest. It’s worth being precise about what that is and isn’t: this is a change of leader within a government, not a change of government. The spending envelope, the parliamentary arithmetic and most of the 2024 manifesto remain in place.

What changes is emphasis. And for the charity and not-for-profit sector, the shift in emphasis looks significant enough to warrant thinking about now rather than reacting to later.

He arrives with a track record, not a blank page

Most incoming Prime Ministers have said little about civil society before taking office. Burnham is an exception. He set out his views in a 2020 essay for the think tank PBE, developed them as Mayor of Greater Manchester through the Greater Manchester Accord with the VCFSE sector, and has returned to the same themes repeatedly since.

Four ideas recur:

• Core funding over project funding. He has argued that government needs to back organisations with money that lets them operate without constantly worrying about sustaining themselves and the people they employ.
• Co-design and co-delivery. His position is that civil society isn’t simply a delivery partner but holds the primary expertise in areas like equalities and community engagement.
• Procurement that weighs social value genuinely, rather than treating it as a scoring afterthought.
• Radical devolution, pushing power and resources closer to communities.

His maiden speech as PM committed to a “more preventative state” investing in people’s success rather than paying for failure.

The ministerial picture

Continuity where it matters most: Lisa Nandy remains Culture Secretary, retaining the civil society brief and the Civil Society Covenant work. Angela Rayner returns as Housing Secretary. As Pioneers Post noted, Burnham is the UK’s first Labour and Co-operative Prime Minister, a genuine signal for the impact economy.

The notable loss is Darren Jones, architect of the Office for the Impact Economy, who returned to the backbenches. The sector has one fewer senior champion inside government than it did in June.

The honest caveats

Enthusiasm should be calibrated against three things.

Fiscal reality. Burnham has said he remains committed to the manifesto pledge on VAT, income tax and National Insurance, while suggesting there is some room for movement and potential to raise more from business rates. That is a narrow box, and core funding at scale is expensive.

Institutional memory. Governance & Leadership editor Tania Mason noted dryly that she was hopeful two years ago as well, and that didn’t go especially well. Warm words about partnership have preceded disappointment before.

Unresolved pressures. Employer National Insurance increases continue to bite. Campaigners including Third Sector Against Transphobia have written to the new PM seeking a meeting over how the EHRC’s code of practice affects charities’ ability to deliver inclusive services — a live governance question this autumn.

NCVO’s own assessment was measured: some of this the sector will discover together as events unfold.

Why this matters for workforce planning

Every theme above translates into people. Devolved delivery needs partnership managers. Prevention needs evaluators. Core funding changes what kind of contract you can offer. Social care reform reshapes an entire workforce.

Workforce planning is a lead indicator, not a lagging one. Organisations that wait for funding confirmation before thinking about structure will be recruiting into a crowded market against organisations that didn’t.

Over the next five articles, we’ll take each theme in turn and look at what it means practically for hiring, starting with the biggest single opportunity: the potential devolution of employment support.

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