Greater Manchester residents are largely positive about Burnham’s legacy as mayor

Key takeaways

  • Prior to becoming PM, 52% of Greater Manchester residents held a favourable opinion of Andy Burnham
  • 64% of Greater Mancunians describe Burnham as likeable, 56% as competent and 51% as strong
  • Residents of the city-region are largely positive about Burnham’s record on transport, but are more negative about his record on housing
  • A third of Greater Mancunians (33%) believe that Burnham’s premiership will leave the country as a whole better off, while 25% feel Britain will be left worse off

Andy Burnham has now more than settled into Downing Street, with his first fortnight in Number 10 being accompanied by a flurry of policy announcements, including capping bus fares across the country at £2, a policy he pioneered as Mayor of Greater Manchester in 2022.

Indeed, Burnham has made clear that he wants to take many of the ideas and policies that shaped Greater Manchester while he was mayor and apply them across the UK. But what do the people who know his record best make of him and his policies? We return to our poll of Greater Mancunians to find out...

Opinion of Andy Burnham in Greater Manchester

Prior to him becoming prime minister, a majority of Greater Manchester residents held a favourable opinion of Andy Burnham (52%), with this positive sentiment reasonably consistent across the county. However, this is relative to more than a third (37%) seeing him unfavourably.

Burnham also performs strongly in the city-region across a range of personal characteristics. Nearly two thirds of residents describe him as likeable (64%), while majorities see him as competent (56%) and strong (51%). Residents are also more likely to describe him as decisive than not (49% vs 21%), principled rather than unprincipled (45% vs 24%), and trustworthy rather than untrustworthy (42% vs 31%).

Despite these positive perceptions, residents of Greater Manchester are more divided over Burnham’s decision to step down as Mayor before the end of his term. More than four in ten (44%) believe he was right to resign and contest the parliamentary by-election, while 31% think he should have remained Mayor until 2028.

Among those who voted Labour at the last general election, one in five (19%) believe he should have stayed on until the end of his mayoral term, though 62% were happy for him to run for parliament.

Attitudes to Andy Burnham’s record on transport in Greater Manchester

Burnham has earned a national reputation for transforming transport across the city-region, and three quarters of Greater Manchester residents (75%) say he did a good job in this area. This includes 71% of those who voted Conservative in 2024 and 62% of those who voted Reform.

When it comes to how easy or hard it is to get around using different forms of transport in their local area, eight in ten (79%) say it is easy to travel by bus, with at least half also saying it was easy to travel by train (59%), by tram (51%) and by bike (50%).

However, the ease of use of some forms of transport is not uniform across the city-region. A lower 70% of residents of Bolton and Wigan say they find it easy to get around using buses, compared to 78-86% of those in other parts of Greater Manchester.

Similarly, just 35% of adults who live in Bolton and Wigan find it easy to access cycling routes in their area, relative to 44-46% of those in the eastern boroughs and 63-65% of those in Manchester, and Salford and Trafford.

Attitudes to Andy Burnham’s record on housing in Greater Manchester

Greater Manchester has become well known for its rapidly growing skyline over the past decade, and indeed there’s appetite for further housing developments, with 57% of adults in the city-region supportive of building more housing developments in their local area.

There’s less appetite for further exclusive apartments, with just 19% of residents in favour of building more private luxury developments in their area, relative to 64% of Greater Mancunians supporting the building of more council and social housing near them.

Those in Manchester itself are more supportive of new building than their counterparts in the suburban boroughs, with 73% of those who live in the city itself supporting new housing developments and 29% in favour of more luxury developments.

Nonetheless, Burnham’s record on this issue is seen less positively by Greater Manchester residents than his record on transport, with more saying he did a bad job on housing (39%) than a did good job (31%).

Perhaps key to why some hold this opinion is that around three quarters of Greater Mancunians (77%) say that housing in their local area has become less affordable over the past five years, including 51% saying it has become much less affordable. These figures are consistent among residents living in both the city centre and the more suburban parts of the county (77-78%).

What impact do Greater Mancunians expect from a Burnham premiership?

Although 66% of Greater Manchester residents believe that Burnham did an overall good job as mayor, there’s not a great deal of optimism about the impact of his premiership.

For the third of Greater Mancunians (33%) that believe that Burnham’s premiership will leave the country as a whole better off, there’s 25% who feel he will make Britain worse off and 27% who expect he’ll make no difference to the country’s fortunes.

A similar third (33%) expect his time at Number 10 will make Greater Manchester itself better off, relative to 20% feel he’ll leave the region worse off.

Residents are most divided when it comes to the impact on people like themselves, with around a quarter (24%) believing they will be personally better off thanks to Burnham becoming prime minister, while a similar 27% think they will be left worse off. A greater 37%, however, expect his leadership to make no difference to people like them.

Local authorities have been grouped in this data according to their NUT3 classification.

See the full results here

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Photo: Getty

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