Andy 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........

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