Andy Burnham’s first week: Every pledge from the new PM’s cost-of-living blitz

Not everyone in the trade was convinced it went far enough.

The move is the latest in a rapid-fire series of announcements that have defined Burnham's opening days in Downing Street. Since taking office on Monday, the new prime minister has unveiled roughly one policy a day, almost all of them aimed at easing the squeeze on household and business budgets.

Understanding the Andy Burnham policies taking shape matters because, together, they amount to the most deliberate shift in economic direction the country has seen in years.

A 'cost of living government'

Speaking to his newly assembled cabinet for the first time on Tuesday, Burnham told ministers his would be a “cost of living government”. In his inaugural speech on Monday he went further, setting out a vision to undo economic policies introduced by the Thatcher administration in the 1980s and to bring forward what he called “the biggest changes in the last 40 years”.

The confirmed pledges so far are weighted towards the short term. One of Burnham's first moves was to scrap VAT on household electricity bills from October, a measure expected to cut around £45 from the average annual energy bill. The Treasury said the change would cost about £850m this financial year and would be funded by cancelling the government's planned Digital ID programme. He has also announced a £2 cap on bus fares across England from January, and repeated a promise to fix social care.

The pub rates cut — and its critics

Thursday's business rates announcement was pitched squarely at hospitality, a sector that has warned for years about closures. But celebrity chef and publican Tom Kerridge, who has been campaigning to cut hospitality VAT to 10%, said the discount did not go far enough.

“£1,000 on a yearly revenue doesn't really make a difference,” Kerridge told BBC Radio 5 Live, though he added: “It shows the government are beginning to listen and has an understanding that hospitality is at the core and heart of so many communities.”

The rates cut alone is expected to cost the government around £100m a year, and economists have warned that taxes will likely need to rise to fund the wider package. Chancellor John Healey used a speech to business leaders in central London to insist he would “back” British firms, telling them: “I'm just as concerned about the cost of business as I am about the cost of living.” He set out five priorities, including fiscal discipline, growth “in every postcode” and driving wealth creation.

What happens next

The opposition is already circling. Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch used a press conference to take aim at the swathe of new spending commitments, urging Burnham to fix the economy before tackling the cost of living. With the Office for Budget Responsibility having previously flagged that some of the cancelled schemes were themselves “unfunded”, the central question of Burnham's early premiership is now clear: how, exactly, will all of this be paid for? The answer will shape whether this first-week blitz becomes a defining agenda or an expensive opening gambit.