Prime Minister Andy Burnham cut business rates for pubs and clubs Xavier LorenzoAndy Burnham has spoken up for Britain’s nightlife, but he needs to think much bigger.The new PM has already given Britain’s struggling nightlife businesses something to celebrate. His government cut business rates for pubs, clubs and music venues by 20%, part of a wider attempt to revive high streets and protect institutions that contribute to the social as well as economic life of communities. It is a welcome recognition of a sector under considerable pressure. But it could also be the beginning of something much wider.Britain needs a national policy for what happens after dark. Even a night time economy minister. And that means thinking well beyond pubs and clubs.Around £110 billion annually of economic activity takes place in Britain’s night-time economy. Britons work at night in more than eight million jobs – 27% of the UK workforce might be working night shifts of some sort. This is not just hospitality and entertainment workers, currently the focus of national debate. The night is a labour market as much as it is a leisure economy. It includes nurses, carers and emergency workers; freight and logistics workers; cleaners, security guards and manufacturers; airport and transport workers; and the people maintaining the digital infrastructure on which an increasingly 24-hour society depends.The question for Burnham, then, is whether his intervention can grow from support for nightlife businesses into a serious national night-time policy.There is plenty Britain could do.Transport policy could explicitly recognise the nocturnal workforce. Late-night buses and trains are often discussed in terms of getting revellers home safely. But they are also how a nurse gets to an early shift, a cleaner returns home at 2am or an airport worker reaches a terminal before the first morning flight. Many shift workers rely on late night transport. Jono Photography Planning could take a similar 24-hour view. Housing, logistics, entertainment, hospitals and transport infrastructure frequently occupy the same urban spaces but operate according to very different clocks. Better night-time planning could anticipate those conflicts rather than leaving licensing authorities to resolve them afterwards. It could also deliver better workforce policy. Living wage discussions could embrace nocturnal implications of shift work.Other governments are beginning to experiment with precisely this broader approach.In Australia, New South Wales has developed a 24-hour economy strategy encompassing regulation, planning, precinct development, night-time workers, transport, safety and data. It has created a 24-hour economy office and commissioner, and a dedicated minister for the night-time economy. Queensland has legislated for its own night-life economy commissioner, following earlier work already in place in Canberra by the Australian Capital Territory authority.This is no down-under exception, though Australia might be the most proactive at state level. Cities globally have experimented even more widely. Amsterdam has its night mayor, New York the Office of Nightlife, Paris a night council, and other cities have created night managers, commissioners, commissions and advisory boards. European cities have collaborated through the UrbACT Cities After Dark network in Europe. Put it simply, as we have shown in research time and time again, over the past two decades night-time governance has expanded significantly.Britain has been part of this experimentation too. London, Glasgow, Bristol and others have developed night-time leadership and initiatives. But internationally there remains a striking gap: almost all this institutional innovation stops at city hall or, occasionally, state or regional government. Calls for attention and legislation for night work have been made persuasively, not least with events at the Houses of Parliament, and put forward by the Night Club project too, such as annual health checks and more research into the impacts of working after dark.Urgent opportunityThat creates an urgent opportunity for Burnham’s government.A national night-time strategy could establish some relatively simple principles: measure the night economy properly; require major transport and planning decisions to consider impacts; examine the health and conditions of night workers; coordinate national and local policy; and treat the night as an economic development issue extending far beyond hospitality.And it needs someone in government responsible for making that happen.Richard Parker, the West Midlands mayor, has already called on Burnham to appoint a minister for the night-time economy. The idea deserves serious consideration, and has been echoed by wider industry calls too. Such a minister could sit within the government’s business and growth operations, while working across transport, health, employment, culture, policing and local government. It could take a minister of state position within the new Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (BIST), or even in the Treasury as a secretary alongside regional growth and productivity, or in the Cabinet Office in a similar set up to a cross-cutting minister for cities established under the Tories and Liberal Democrats.This would not be a minister for pubs. It would effectively be a minister for all of the nightlife: responsible for asking what government policies mean during the hours when Whitehall traditionally assumes Britain is asleep. The urgency is there, as nightlife bears the brunt of increasingly impactful climate hazards, imposed on a nocturnal workforce that is typically precarious, migrant, affected by significant health issues and underpaid.Burnham’s new No 10 North makes this particularly timely. If its purpose is to rethink how central government relates to places, it should also rethink what time of the day government sees them.Britain helped pioneer modern thinking about the night-time economy. It could now become the first country to turn decades of local experimentation into a genuinely national approach. Cutting business rates for pubs and clubs is a good start. The bigger opportunity is recognising that Britain’s economy, infrastructure and public services do not stop at 5pm. Neither should the way they are governed.Michele Acuto receives funding from the Australian Research Council for the project "Night Shift" (DP220101078).