LONDON: British Prime Minister Andy Burnham formally opened his newly created northern office on Friday, promising “a different way of running Britain” as he tries to reverse decades of centralized power over England in London.Unveiling Number 10 North in the north-western city of Manchester, Burnham – who replaced Keir Starmer as prime minister on Monday – promised that electricity would “flow” from London’s Whitehall governing district to boost economic growth. “This is not just a new office,” he told staff at the city center site. “This is where Whitehall meets the rest of the country.”The former mayor of Greater Manchester says the thriving city-region – which has outpaced Britain’s national performance in a variety of areas including economic growth – provides a model for other parts of the country. He aims to work from Number 10 North at least once a week, dismissing criticism that it was a “short-term gimmick”. Burnham insisted, “It creates a sense of a more balanced country and that great things can be done from here.”However, transfer experts appear unconvinced. De-concentration “is something to be done even in very centralized states and does not in itself indicate any transfer of power”, academic and policy adviser Alan Trench told AFP. “At most, it shifts public sector jobs and the lives and incomes of the people who hold them.”The UK – comprising England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – saw significant constitutional reforms in the late 1990s, creating devolved parliaments in Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast. London also gained a directly elected mayor and a scrutinizing assembly. But experts say England itself remains one of Europe’s most centralized countries, despite the creation of some regional mayors and other bodies over the past decade. Trench said, “There is no power of law-making developed anywhere in England.”Professor Nicola McEwen of the University of Glasgow said English devolution has been “very asymmetric”, hampered by London largely seeing it as “something that happens elsewhere”.Burnham experienced the limitations of the current system during his nine years as Manchester Mayor. Now in London, he has ordered departments including the Finance Ministry to carry out a “targeted transfer of wider strategic functions” to Number 10 North, a minister told parliament this week.McEwen said handing over the strategic role to Number 10 North was “positive” but success would still depend on Whitehall agreeing to cooperate. However, Michael Keating, politics professor at the University of Aberdeen, said it was “deeply ironic that to deal with centralization you have set up a central government department which will decide who gets what”. “You get out of their way” as part of a “genuine” transfer, he said.Others said that transferring civil servants was neither bold nor original. Burnham’s spokesman admitted this week that around 80,000 civil servants already work in north-west England. Burnham, who met the nationalist leaders of Scotland and Wales on Thursday, has said little about further devolution other than refusing to support an independence referendum.(This is an AFP story)