Greater Manchester authorities have launched an inquiry into a £55 million loan granted to companies controlled by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the Abu Dhabi owner of Manchester City football club, as part of a wider review into a housing development fund established during Andy Burnham’s tenure as mayor.
The loan, approved in 2017 by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA), was directed to support Manchester Life—a housing project aiming to deliver 6,000 homes in the city. While the GMCA confirmed that the loan has been fully repaid, details about the loan’s interest rate and the rationale behind extending public funds to one of the world’s wealthiest individuals have not been disclosed.
The investigation follows increased scrutiny of Manchester City and its owners, linked to the club’s recent financial misconduct ruling. Last month, the club was found to have artificially inflated its revenues by approximately £900 million over nine years, breaching financial regulations. During this period, Andy Burnham, now the UK prime minister, had publicly praised the club’s owners for their role in Manchester’s development and expressed concern about their potential departure from local sport.
Questions intensified after it emerged that Burnham met with City’s owners at the Etihad Stadium shortly before the loan approval. This meeting, initially omitted from official records, came to light following a review prompted by Downing Street, which requested a “manual trawl” of the prime minister’s meetings to ensure transparency.
John Leech, a Manchester Liberal Democrat councillor and chair of the GMCA’s overview and scrutiny committee, announced that the committee would review the entire housing fund, which has allocated around £1 billion across 50 developers since 2015. Leech highlighted concerns about the loan approval process, describing it as “very opaque” and noting confusion over why some businesses secured public funds while others did not. He questioned the necessity of lending public money to entities with substantial private capital, citing Sheikh Mansour’s financial standing as an example.
A spokesperson for the GMCA defended the loan scheme, emphasizing that all funding decisions were made publicly and that no viable applications were rejected. They stated that the fund had contributed to the construction of 11,000 new homes and facilitated billions of pounds worth of developments “at no cost to the taxpayer.” The spokesperson noted that lending criteria were developed in accordance with government guidelines and external financial expert advice to ensure due diligence consistent with private sector standards.
Downing Street declined to comment on the inquiry. The GMCA affirmed its cooperation with the scrutiny committee’s investigation. The ongoing review aims to clarify the fund’s operation, loan eligibility, and the transparency of public money allocation under Burnham’s mayoralty.