Andy Burnham promises more devolution and public control of essential services - BBC

Andy Burnham addressed the House of Commons for the first time as prime minister after taking power on 20 July, using his debut to outline plans for "stronger public control" of essential services.
He argued that a "series of wrong turns" since the 1980s had privatised economic power, centralised political power and deindustrialised the country, pointing to the water industry as "a leaking monument to that approach".
Burnham pledged to extend devolution powers to more areas of England and promised a plan for greater public control of water and energy would be produced later in the year, though he stopped short of calling for full nationalisation.
Pressed by Conservative MP Alison Griffiths on the water sector, he said it was important to "look at all possible solutions" but acknowledged privatisation had left a situation that would be "very difficult to reverse".
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch criticised his approach, accusing him of offering "more government control, more taxes and more politicians" and arguing his growth theory was wrong.
Badenoch also warned that being prime minister would be "very different" from his role as Greater Manchester mayor, where she said he did not have to make difficult trade-offs, while Burnham said he returned to Parliament after a decade away with a "clear diagnosis" of the country's problems.