Burnham is most well-known mayor
ANDY Burnham’s name is better known among his constituents than any other city mayor outside London, according to a new survey.
The M.E.N. and its sister titles across the country asked readers a series of questions about their metro-mayor - including whether they knew his name.
Three-quarters of M.E.N. respondents knew the region now has a mayor, according to the responses, while two-thirds knew that it was Andy Burnham.
By comparison, just a third of people who responded to the Birmingham Mail’s survey said they know the West Midlands mayor is Andy Street.
Most are unclear as to Mr Burnham’s direct responsibilities, however.
The survey collected around 500 responses from readers last week.
It found 75 per cent of people agreed that they knew Greater Manchester had a mayor, although that number varied considerably between age groups.
Among 18-24-year-olds the figure was 53pc, rising to 91pc among people aged 65 or over.
Merseyside had the next highest level of awareness, at 70pc.
Meanwhile 65pc of M.E.N. readers could name Andy Burnham, but just one in three people in the west of England, Teeside and the West Midlands - where mayor Tory Andy Street, former John Lewis chief, has been lauded by Theresa May - could name their mayor.
However, most M.E.N. readers 59pc - were unclear about the policy areas Mr Burnham oversees.
The result is perhaps unsurprising, given that some of the issues the mayor has made pledges on, including homelessness, do not fall directly within his remit - but rely instead on him using his influence to bring together other agencies and leaders.
Across the country only 9pc of people in each area strongly agreed that they understood their mayor’s powers.
Greater Manchester respondents were also more likely than any others to support the idea of mayoral tax-raising powers in order to increase affordable housing supply.
More than a third - 38pc - of people said they either strongly agreed or tended to agree with the idea, compared to 35pc in Merseyside, 31pc in the West Midlands and just 23pc in Teeside.
Mr Burnham said: “These figures are very encouraging and I would like to thank people for their interest in the mayoral role and the encouragement they have given to me since I took it on. It means a lot.
“Having established good awareness of the role, the challenge in 2018 is to show devolution can make a real difference to Greater Manchester. I know the onus is on me to show that, and deliver real results for people. I will be giving my all this year to make it happen.
“At present, politics at a national level is bogged down in negativity. I want to break through that and make Greater Manchester the place where positive things are happening and which everybody is talking about.”
The survey was conducted using Google Consumer Surveys.