On Monday, Healey blamed “too high” borrowing costs on global events as well as 14 years of Tory rule, including austerity under David Cameron, Brexit under Boris Johnson and Liz Truss’s mini-Budget.
Healey said he and Burnham would balance the government’s day-to-day spending with tax receipts, with room for manoeuvre in case of shocks.
His tone contrasted with former PM Sir Keir, who was accused of talking down the UK economy after Labour came to power with repeated warnings about the state of the public finances.
Helen Miller, director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, said: “Economic growth in every postcode sounds great and is something we would all love. I think it’ll actually be much harder to achieve in practice.”
During his first Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, Burnham faced scrutiny over rising UK borrowing costs.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch urged him to say how he would deal with the UK’s increasing debt, after the cost of borrowing for the UK reached a new 18-year high.
Following the recent volatility in financial markets, Rupert Harrison, senior adviser at bond giant Pimco and former chief of staff to Tory chancellor George Osborne, said the UK was being treated as “guilty until proven innocent” in terms of fiscal responsibility.
He told the BBC’s Today programme that the UK used to have a lot of credibility with bond markets for managing to “get its house back in order when things go wrong”.
But he said the country had lost credibility in recent years due, in part, to Truss’s mini-Budget, governments choosing to defer deficit reduction, and UK inflation remaining above the Bank of England’s 2% target since the pandemic.
During his speech, Healey also unveiled a £150m fund for companies in the north of England, part of a wider plan to spread economic growth around the UK.
Healey detailed plans to use public investment to “unlock private investment, to support our innovation economy, and to create the new jobs their areas need”.
The fund, from money already allocated to the British Business Bank, will provide investments of between £5m and £15m to the “most innovative and fast-growing firms”.
It is expected to back university spin-outs and other “ambitious businesses” across the north.
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper said: “Re-announcing £150m across the entire north of England will barely shift the dial on growth.”
Robert Jenrick, Reform UK’s economic spokesman, said: “Days after a market meltdown, when grip and direction are required, John Healey has revealed himself to be an empty vessel with no idea about how to rescue our economy.”