What's your message to Burnham as he becomes PM?

Good luck, Andy. You'll need it. Here's my message. Small businesses aren't a nice-to-have; they ARE the economy. SMEs are 60% of the jobs and half the turnover. Forget them, and you forget half the country. And they are dropping like flies. A pub a day is calling last orders for good; thousands of jobs gone with them, buried under energy bills, business rates and the rising cost of employing people. Every one that shuts is a livelihood, a local, a team who trusted their boss. So when you talk about breathing space, mean it for the little guys too. They are the ones quietly propping up their staff with pay rises they can't really afford.
Can you fix the cost of living overnight? No. But energy, childcare and housing are where real life is won or lost. Get those moving, and you change millions of ordinary days. Save the small firms, Andy. Lose them, and there's no economy left to fix.

If Burnham really thinks Thatcher is the problem, he doesn't understand the question. Her record speaks for itself. Britain was the sick man of Europe in the 1970s before she took office. Inflation fell from 21.9% to 2.4%; strike days from 29.5 million to 1.9 million; real take-home pay rose by a third. Home ownership climbed from 55% to 67%, shareholders from 3 million to 11 million. Foreign holidays doubled, phone ownership rose to nearly nine in ten homes, pensioner incomes rose 30%, and infant mortality fell almost 40%. Real GDP grew nearly a third, outpacing France, Germany and Italy, while manufacturing productivity went from the G7's slowest growth to its fastest. Three years of budget surpluses, debt repaid 1987–90, national debt cut from 47% to 28% of GDP, and the civil service shrunk from 732,000 to 565,000. If Burnham achieves 1% of this, he'll be a success. Britain doesn't need more government — it needs government to get out of the way.

My message to Andy Burnham is simple: end the benefits first unacceptable show and get Britain working again. “Breathing space” cannot mean another temporary giveaway funded through higher taxes or borrowing, because that risks feeding inflation and keeping mortgage rates higher for longer. Government cannot order the independent Bank of England to cut rates, but it can create the conditions for cuts through disciplined spending and credible economic policy. Reduce the tax burden on work, stop punishing employers for hiring, build homes, secure cheaper energy and target support towards people who genuinely cannot work. Britain does not need another slogan or sticking plaster. It needs jobs, productivity, responsibility and growth.

Burnham needs to focus all his energy on small businesses and getting Britain growing again. The country will soon become fed up of hearing he’s got a plan, but not sharing it. Now is the time for Burnham to open his books and show us his vision for the country, but he seems reluctant and maybe that’s because the pages are blank.

My message to Andy Burnham would be: give people breathing space by addressing the causes of the squeeze, not just subsidising the symptoms. The Government cannot control global prices, but it can stop adding unnecessarily to household and business costs. That means stability in the tax outlook rather than months of Budget speculation, getting serious about Britain's structurally high energy and housing costs, and creating an environment in which businesses can invest, hire, and raise wages.

Targeted help may be necessary in the short term, but it has to be paid for. If markets believe it means significantly more borrowing, gilt yields may rise and mortgage rates with them, leaving households handing back through higher borrowing costs money they have just been given in support. The only sustainable answer is stronger growth and rising real incomes.

The cheapest thing any new Prime Minister could do on the cost of living costs nothing to announce: stop the stealth tax on pay.

The tax-free personal allowance has been stuck at £12,570 since 2021, and the freeze is now set to run to 2031. Here is why that quietly bites. As wages rise with inflation, the point where tax starts does not move, so a bigger share of your pay is taxed every year even though no rate has gone up. It is a tax rise no one ever has to vote for.

The person it catches is not the wealthy planner. It is the nurse or the delivery driver whose pay went up on paper but whose take-home barely moved, and the pensioner dragged into tax for the first time.

So my message to Burnham would be simple: real breathing space is not another one-off rebate. It is unfreezing the thresholds so people keep more of their own pay.

Announce that, and every payslip feels it.

Andy Burnham has highlighted that politicians as a collective have not been good enough; therefore, he needs to be honest from the beginning. Many policies have been rumoured around the cost of living, but it needs to be made clear how he will fill the fiscal black hole, or else I feel he will face the same fate as his predecessor. Burnham’s economic advisors all suggest that he removes the triple lock, but instead he is looking to increase the personal allowance so the state pension isn’t taxed. It is important to keep party pledges, but to be a success he needs to be brave and admit that removing the triple lock would be one of the easiest ways to stop debt rising, even if he intends to keep it. However, it’s important he does address the conflict between the triple lock and the state pension being taxed, as failing to do so means we will dilute the triple lock by taxing a benefit, and something designed to increase pensioners' incomes will be returned to the Treasury in income tax.

Every wishlist he gets this week will be about building more homes. Mine isn't. Two things would move the market faster than supply, and both unlock transactions that are already nearly possible.

Demand. Lenders have largely solved the deposit: 5% is standard now, sometimes less. Clients reach the loan amount they need and then stall on the monthly payment. Help to Buy is a toxic brand, fairly or not, but a successor under another name, aimed squarely at the monthly payment, would reach the people who are stuck.

Leasehold. Buying and selling flats in London has become genuinely difficult: EWS1 paperwork, rising ground rents, and service charges nobody is accountable for. Cap ground rents and service charges, and properly oversee managing agents. That reopens a large part of the market without laying a brick.

Neither of these needs a building programme. Both would be felt by people trying to move this year, which is more than most housing policy can say.

My message to Andy Burnham is simple: don't fall into the same trap as governments before him. We saw ministers claim credit whenever the Bank of England cut rates, even though rate decisions are entirely independent of Number 10. He can't move mortgage rates, that's the Bank's job, but he can move growth. What I'd like him to do is promote growth properly, listen to the public unlike previous governments, and cancel stamp duty for first time buyers and downsizers. That puts more cash in people's pockets and more fluidity into the housing market, which in turn means more transactions and more money into the public purse. Can he really shift the dial on cost of living quickly? Not through rates he doesn't set, but through growth and tax reform, yes.

Burnham needs to read the room. Bear in mind he has essentially been voted in as PM by circa 20000 via the Makerfield election. This is not a strong mandate off the back of a disastrous Labour leadership to date.

He should listen to public opinion, be prepared to make unpopular choices but only those that benefit the majority and not a minority. Labour needs to stick to its roots and help all people that work, including business owners, and make sure he acts with parity and careful thought.

The public don’t want more tax rises, most won’t mind paying tax but do care how it is spent so he should spend it wisely not widely.

All eyes are on him and one wrong move and the Burnham bubble will burst. Labour aren’t loved and he has a steep hill to climb.

My message to Andy Burnham is to lead with a long-term vision, not just short-term headlines. Focus on productivity, sustainable economic growth and creating the conditions for businesses to invest with confidence. Listen to employers of all sizes, especially SMEs, which are the backbone of the UK economy. This is an often used phrase, but it feels like an undervalued consideration when political decisions are made Policies that encourage investment, hiring and wage growth will do more to improve living standards than short-term fixes. A stronger economy is the most effective way to tackle the cost of living over time.

The mortgage industry doesn’t need constant intervention, it needs consistency. Stable economic policy, sensible regulation and measures that improve affordability will help people make confident long-term decisions. We also need to recognise that putting increasing pressure on landlords doesn’t automatically help first-time buyers. Higher costs are often passed on through higher rents, leaving tenants with even less ability to save for a deposit. A healthy housing market needs a balanced approach that supports renters, landlords and aspiring homeowners alike.