Manchester City owner’s £55m housing loan while Burnham was mayor investigated

A £55 million loan to Manchester City's Abu Dhabi owner is under investigation as part of a review into a housing fund while Andy Burnham, the former Greater Manchester mayor, was in office. The Prime Minister has faced increased scrutiny over his connections to the club's owners, following the club's admission of boosting its income by £900 million through a nine-year breach of financial rules.

Burnham had previously praised the Abu Dhabi owners, describing them as "such a huge partner in the building of modern Manchester." However, he now faces questions about his role in approving the loans as part of the Greater Manchester combined authority (GMCA) fund.

In 2017, three property companies controlled by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, received the £55 million loan to finance the Manchester Life housing project, which promised to create 6,000 homes in the city. The GMCA stated that the loans had been fully repaid, but they have not disclosed the interest rate or the reasons behind Sheikh Mansour's eligibility.

Recent revelations indicate that Burnham met with the club's owners at Manchester City's Etihad Stadium weeks before the loans were approved, an encounter that was later removed from public records. This meeting has prompted the Prime Minister to request a "manual trawl" of Burnham's meetings to ensure "full transparency." John Leech, a Liberal Democrat councillor in Manchester, chairs the GMCA's overview and scrutiny committee and announced that the fund, which has allocated £1 billion to 50 developers since 2015, will be investigated.

Leech stated that the approval process for loans has been criticized as "very opaque in the past" and questioned why some businesses received public funding while others did not. He added that the process should be more transparent to ensure fairness.

The GMCA spokesperson defended the fund, stating it has built 11,000 new homes and contributed "billions of pounds worth of development at no cost to the taxpayer." They emphasized that decisions on loan grants are made publicly, with lending criteria based on government-set parameters developed with external financial experts.