Manchester council receives nearly £3m from City owners' development profit-sharing deal

Manchester City Council has received just under £3m through a profit-sharing arrangement covering developments by Manchester City's owners, BBC News reported on Tuesday. The council said another payment was expected, although the financial terms remain confidential.

The 2014 agreement entitled the authority to additional payments when profits on Abu Dhabi United Group developments in Ancoats and New Islington passed an agreed threshold. Professor Adam Leaver told the BBC that undisclosed terms and offshore company accounts prevented a full comparison of the partners' returns.

The partnership's origins are documented in a Treasury announcement dated 24 June 2014. It described Manchester Life as an initiative intended to attract up to £1bn over ten years, with an initial phase exceeding 830 homes. The wider ambition was to stimulate construction of more than 6,000 properties, rather than deliver that number in the first phase alone.

The same announcement identified Abu Dhabi United Group as Manchester City Football Club's owner and said a joint development company would oversee the housing programme. Construction was then expected to start in 2015. The Treasury linked the initiative to earlier regeneration work in east Manchester, including the Etihad Campus and City Football Academy.

Council records illustrate one part of that programme at Cotton Field Wharf in New Islington. The development comprises 302 apartments and 5,175 square feet of commercial space. Its published assessment lists 384 construction jobs and £4.5m in council tax revenue over ten years, a separate measure from the profit-sharing payments reported by the BBC.

The council's account also describes work placements and apprenticeships across Manchester Life's first-phase developments. Contractors offered 41 placements for people aged 16 and over and work experience for 24 graduates, while using 175 apprentices during construction. Those figures concern the wider first phase, not Cotton Field Wharf alone.

Responding to the BBC, the council said independent experts valued each land parcel and defended the returns achieved. It reported roughly 1,500 homes across nine sites within a £1.25bn regeneration programme. The profit threshold triggering additional payments has not been disclosed publicly.