The Institute of Fiscal Studies has warned that Prime Minister Andy Burnham's drive to increase public ownership of industries such as water, energy, housing and transport could add tens of billions of pounds to Government debt. The programme, termed 'Manchesterism', remains poorly defined, encompassing possibilities from stricter regulation to full nationalisation, raising uncertainty about its true fiscal impact and how it will be accounted for under Treasury rules.

The IFS highlighted significant complications in measuring the costs of public ownership. The water industry illustrates the scale of the problem: moving it entirely into public hands could add £91 billion in liabilities to the public sector balance sheet, offset by only £12 billion in financial assets. Additional concerns include uncertainties about compensation levels, ongoing running costs (Thames Water alone would need £2.4 billion annually until 2027), and whether the Government's chosen debt metric (PSNFL) will adequately capture the fiscal consequences of such major public ownership shifts.