The arrangement under review is Manchester Life, a joint venture formed in 2014 between the city council and Abu Dhabi United Group (ADUG), the vehicle owned by Sheikh Mansour that controls Manchester City. A follow-up collaboration agreement signed in 2015 gave the venture a 10-year right of first refusal on council-owned development sites in Ancoats and New Islington, two post-industrial districts in central Manchester. That agreement expired in 2025 and was not renewed.
Across the decade of the contract, Manchester Life built close to 1,800 homes on the land. The council’s share of the profits came to less than £3m, with the first overage payment of £2.9m arriving only within the past two years under a structure that let ADUG recoup its development costs and bank returns of 8% in phase one and 10% in phase two before the council saw a penny of profit.
‘Red-carpet treatment’, say rival developers
An unnamed North-West developer, speaking to The Times, called the arrangement a “sweetheart deal” and said ADUG received “the red-carpet treatment where other British-based developers are not.” The reporting prompted a defence from the council, whose spokesperson pointed to the regeneration record.
“The Manchester Life partnership was set up to deliver significant housing development and create investor confidence and a platform for other developers to come into the market and invest in Manchester,” the spokesperson said.
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“Its success should be measured in what it has delivered directly and what it has unlocked. The regeneration of Ancoats and New Islington is in itself an internationally recognised success story.”
Manchester Life cites 1,500 new homes, two restored historic mills and 30,000 square feet of commercial space inside a £1.25bn regeneration programme. A July internal review by the council itself admitted weaknesses in documentation, monitoring and assurance around historic overage arrangements of this kind.
Stannard and Bridges inherit the Leese-era file
The scrutiny is being driven by officials who were not in post when the deal was signed. Chief executive Tom Stannard and newly elected council leader Garry Bridges inherited the file from Sir Howard Bernstein and Sir Richard Leese, who ran the council for close to two decades and signed off on the ADUG arrangement. Leese is now honorary president of Manchester City and has defended the original decision, arguing Abu Dhabi investment was essential to kick-start the Ancoats regeneration at a point when private developers were not queueing up to build there.
The current review is described as an internal reassessment, and the council has stated it does not suspect past illegal activity, only that a similar arrangement would not be signed today.
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City await sanctions over 114 charges
The council’s reassessment lands with awkward timing for City. A Premier League commission ruled in late September that the club were guilty of 114 of 115 financial charges brought by the league, covering alleged inflation of revenues and underreporting of costs across multiple seasons. The club is expected to appeal, with a final decision on sanctions, which could run from a points deduction to expulsion, not expected until early 2027.
Andy Burnham was Mayor of Greater Manchester from May 2017 until mid-2026, covering most of the Manchester Life contract, and is now the UK’s Prime Minister. The council has not set a public end date for its own review of the ADUG partnership.
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