LONDON — Andy Burnham will make “significant” cuts to Britain’s civil service staffing in order to funnel officials into councils and mayoral bodies in England, the official leading the U.K. prime minister’s devolution unit has indicated to POLITICO.

Caroline Simpson, Burnham’s deputy chief of staff in “No. 10 North,” the Manchester outpost that he opened last month, said the office will draw up plans in the coming months to “transfer” civil service resources into mayoral authorities as they are handed more power.

Speaking to POLITICO Magazine for a major profile of Burnham’s project in her first interview since taking the role, Simpson said England remains “one of the most centralized countries in the Western Hemisphere. We have very little true devolution.”