In a speech at the People's History Museum in Manchester, Burnham offered more detail of his plans if, as expected, he becomes Britain's seventh prime minister in a decade as soon as July 20.
Promising Britain's "biggest rebalancing of power", he said he would build more social housing, give local governments more control over water and other utilities and take on a cost-of-living crisis, all while sticking to the government's fiscal rules.
To standing ovations, Burnham again said his blueprint would be based on his work as mayor of Greater Manchester in northwestern England, where his focus on delivering promises meant dealing with other community organisations.
And in a pointed comment to Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who on June 22 said he was stepping down, he said he would end "the business as usual" approach to politics that he described as failing to lift the living standards of so many in the country.
"I am going to give Britain the circuit breaker it needs by building a more collaborative politics in Westminster, by taking power out of the centre and putting it in the hands of the people and places who can use it best," he told an audience on Monday that included other regional mayors and Manchester-based MPs.
"Imagine good growth in every postcode and hope in every heart. Imagine no more, let's make it happen," Burnham said in a speech that appeared to be directed at countering the rise of Nigel Farage's populist Reform UK party.
In the domestically focused speech, the former mayor, said his election to parliament earlier in June had convinced him that politicians had to radically change their approach.
Instead, he promised to shake up the civil service to smooth policy development, start the biggest program of social housing building since the years following World War II, reindustrialise the country and help young people into jobs to reduce the welfare bill.
He said he would create a "Number 10 north" to share some of the prime minister's Downing Street operations with a team in Manchester, specifically on housing, the reform of utilities and reindustrialisation.
In a nod to the markets which had some concerns Burnham would increase borrowing, Burnham said he would be able to change Britain's politics without breaking with "the discipline of our current fiscal rules".
His words were welcomed by Labour MPs, including a potential rival, former health minister Wes Streeting, who decided not to pursue a leadership challenge, making a coronation even more likely.
"Finally some hope again," Streeting said.
But the list of problems he will have to deal with is lengthy.
Burnham faces the same constraints as Starmer - anaemic economic growth, the rise of populist politics, a cost-of-living crisis and very little room for manoeuvre because of fiscal constraints.
with AP
