Mayor Kim McGuinness joined a Newcastle University panel on 27 October on whether Andy Burnham's Manchester model suits the North East. No recording is out yet.

North East Mayor Kim McGuinness will sit on a public panel at Newcastle University on Tuesday 27 October asking whether “Manchesterism”, the approach to devolution Andy Burnham built as Mayor of Greater Manchester, is a model the North East should copy.

Updated 28 October: the panel took place on Tuesday 27 October. Newcastle University’s Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies has not yet published a recording or write-up; we will link it here if it does.

Updated 18 October: the event is now sold out for in-person places. Registering on Eventbrite puts you on a waiting list for cancellations or signs you up for the free livestream, the organisers say.

The event is free, but places have to be reserved in advance on Eventbrite. It runs from 5pm to 7pm in The Theatre, on the ground floor of the Catalyst building at 3 Helix, Science Square, Newcastle Helix, NE4 5TG.

What the evening is about

Andy Burnham has promised “good growth in every postcode” and a new era of devolution, with power and money moved from Westminster to the regions, the university says. He has called for local communities to have direct control over things that shape daily life such as housing, transport and education, and has described how that worked in Manchester as “Manchesterism in action”.

According to the university, his time as Greater Manchester Mayor, and almost a decade of negotiating with Whitehall, is now shaping national policy, including new powers and resources for mayors and a more explicitly place-based approach to economic growth.

The panel will ask whether the model can, or should, be repeated elsewhere, what the North East can learn from Greater Manchester, and how the two regions differ in economic structure, institutions, political leadership and opportunities. Or, as the university puts it, whether Manchesterism is “simply a new chapter in the long-running debate about how to rebalance Britain”.

The evening is hosted by Newcastle University’s Centre for Urban and Regional Development Studies (CURDS). Its poster lists it as part of the Festival of Social Science, sponsored by the Economic and Social Research Council.

Who is speaking

  • Kim McGuinness, North East Mayor
  • Mirte Boot, regional development expert at the think tank IPPR North
  • Professor John Tomaney, Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at UCL, an expert in regional planning and governance
  • Professor Andy Westwood, University of Birmingham, a former government adviser and regional governance expert

Dr Emma Ormerod, Director of CURDS, which is part of the university’s School of Geography, Politics and Sociology, said:

“With Andy Burnham now in Downing Street, the experiment in regional leadership, devolution and place-based growth that has developed in Greater Manchester is no longer simply a story about Manchester, it is potentially a blueprint for how the UK is governed. This event promises to explore what this could look like in the North East and what lessons can be learned.”

What it means for you

Whitley Bay is inside the North East Mayor’s area, so any move towards the Manchester model would reach the coast as much as Newcastle. This is a chance to hear the mayor and three specialists argue it out in public, and it costs nothing.

  • When: Tuesday 27 October, 5pm to 7pm
  • Where: The Theatre, ground floor, The Catalyst, 3 Helix, Science Square, Newcastle Helix, NE4 5TG
  • Price: free; in-person places sold out, waiting list and livestream via Eventbrite

Getting there from Whitley Bay: the evening falls during the Metro closure between St James and Monkseaton, which runs from 24 October to 1 November. There are no trains through Whitley Bay that week, and replacement bus 900 runs instead, so allow extra time.

More events on the coast and nearby are in our What’s On in Whitley Bay listings.