Earlier this month, prime minister Andy Burnham was among 63,000 runners taking part in the Great North Run from Newcastle to South Shields.

He became the first serving prime minister to run the race, completing the half marathon in 1:57:35 while raising money for North East homelessness charity Changing Lives.

In an interview for BBC Politics North last Friday, which aired on Sunday, political editor Richard Moss challenged him on what moving government north means for places beyond Manchester.

For people in Sunderland, Hartlepool and Workington, Moss suggested, Manchester can feel just as distant as Westminster. Does the North East need its own Number 10?

“Well, it’s got its own Number 11,” Burnham replied, referring to the Darlington Economic Campus.

The North East already has representation in Burnham’s new system. No10 North opened in Manchester in July with responsibility for devolution and local economic growth.

North East Mayor Kim McGuinness and Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen were among the regional mayors at the first meeting of the revived National Economic Council there on 24 July.

Darlington gives the region another route into central government. The campus was created under Boris Johnson’s Conservative government in 2021 and now has a fifth of HM Treasury staff based there alongside staff from eight other government departments and arm’s-length bodies.

Treasury second permanent secretary Beth Russell, who leads the campus, wrote on 23 September that it is already working with No10 North on devolution and regional growth. She said most Treasury staff at the campus had joined the civil service from other sectors and the vast majority had been recruited from the surrounding region.

Burnham described Darlington as the “forerunner” for what his government is now doing in Manchester. He said his time as Greater Manchester mayor had shown him the campus was “really changing the way the Treasury thinks about growth”.

No10 North and Darlington would work “in lockstep on growth and getting growth decisions taken more quickly”, he said.

Burnham reinforced that role at Labour’s conference this week. He said he intends to take the growth model developed in Greater Manchester and drive it “from the very centre of government into every postcode in Britain”, with No10 North working alongside the Treasury to oversee what he called the “rewiring of the British state”. He said that would require a “culture change in Whitehall”.

The formal routes are therefore clear. The North East has two mayors involved in the government’s new economic structures and a substantial Treasury presence inside the region.

What is less clear is who is shaping the North East’s case before those meetings take place.

The Financial Times reported this month that lobbyists, communications consultancies and media organisations are establishing or expanding operations in Manchester following the arrival of No10 North, as organisations reassess where relationships with government need to be built.

Government decisions are rarely shaped only when ministers and mayors sit down together.

Businesses, universities, councils, trade bodies, charities and advisers build relationships with officials, provide evidence and argue for particular priorities. They can help determine how a problem is understood and which proposals receive attention before a decision reaches a meeting.

The question for the North East is who is building those relationships for the region.

McGuinness and Houchen can make the political case for their areas when they meet ministers. Darlington puts national policymakers within the region. But neither removes the need for North East businesses, universities and other institutions to make their own case to the people developing policy between those meetings.

Devolution has made those relationships no less important. Mayors have greater responsibility for areas including transport, housing, planning, skills and economic development, but some of the region’s biggest priorities still depend on national funding or decisions.

Burnham acknowledged that in his Politics North interview.

“I recognise the North East can often feel neglected,” he said, pointing to transport infrastructure and the A1.

“I care about the North East. I do think it’s been short-changed over the years.”

The A1 through Northumberland provides an early test.

Burnham has said No10 North will work with McGuinness to explore an “alternative way” to fund further dualling of the road after the previous scheme was cancelled in 2024.

Whether that leads to a different outcome will depend partly on what happens when ministers and mayors meet.

It will also depend on how effectively the North East makes its case before they get there.