Prime Minister Andy Burnham delivered his first address to the House of Commons since taking office on July 20, outlining a vision for "stronger public control" of essential services and broader devolution across England. He argued that since the 1980s, the UK had taken "a series of wrong turns," including privatization of economic power, centralization of political power, deindustrialization, austerity, and the damaging effects of Brexit. Burnham specifically criticized the water industry as a "leaking monument" to a private-interest approach and promised a plan for greater public control of water and energy later this year.