ben rose

Property adviser, London and Manchester. Asking MCC, GMCA and MHCLG where the public money and land went. MCC blocked my emails. I publish them instead.

[ben rose @benrose1976]

So how did a property adviser end up posting about Andy Burnham and Abu Dhabi?

All we wanted was a planning permission.

It took Manchester City Council over nine years to give us one. In that time Renaker put up about a dozen towers, seven of them around our site.

My client has owned a site on Great Jackson Street in Manchester for 40 years. In October 2017 we started work on planning for 1,037 flats there. We are Manchester born and bred. Friends in London warned us that development in Manchester was "the Wild West". We didn't know how right they were.

We were told we had to provide £28.8m of affordable housing. So we asked what Renaker's Deansgate Square next door had paid. The answer:- Nothing. Zero. Nada. Zip. 1,508 flats and no section 106 agreement at all. Nobody at Manchester City Council could explain why. On four Renaker schemes MCC has "lost" the viability files.

We were told we had to pay just over £1m as an upfront payment. Exactly £1,000 per flat. Across 20 Renaker towers and 8,543 homes, Manchester City Council took just £487,000. That is £57 a home.

So we kept looking. We found £598m of public loans from Andy Burnham's GMCA to Renaker. Add in the other public sources and it is £868m, to companies controlled by one man. None of these loans were ever publicised and the loan terms remain almost entirely hidden.

It took nearly four years just to get to the planning committee. Over nine years on, nothing is built.

We then asked MCC for permission to knock down our own empty warehouses. It refused, giving ten flimsy reasons. So off to court we went. In January 2026 a High Court judge rejected all ten and held that MCC had "acted unreasonably". That case cost MCC over £200,000 of public money. And for what?

My client also owns the main Royal Mail depot on Oldham Road. MCC has since told us that land sits inside its joint venture with Far East Consortium. It has kept over a third of that agreement hidden, including the plan, and won't show it to us. Why?

So we carried on asking questions.

Then they blocked my emails.

We never set out to investigate anyone. We asked one question, got no answer, and kept digging.

We still are.

#ProjectCleanCity
@SianReform @NathanEvansTeam @JoshHalliday @rbrooks45 @DeclanGCarey @jackdulhanty

[ben rose @benrose1976]

@missyouemmy Happy to talk to anyone who asks. The documents are all there.

[ben rose @benrose1976]

So how did a property adviser end up posting about Andy Burnham and Abu Dhabi?

All we wanted was a planning permission.

It took Manchester City Council over nine years to give us one. In that time Renaker put up about a dozen towers, seven of them around our site.

My client has owned a site on Great Jackson Street in Manchester for 40 years. In October 2017 we started work on planning for 1,037 flats there. We are Manchester born and bred. Friends in London warned us that development in Manchester was "the Wild West". We didn't know how right they were.

We were told we had to provide £28.8m of affordable housing. So we asked what Renaker's Deansgate Square next door had paid. The answer:- Nothing. Zero. Nada. Zip. 1,508 flats and no section 106 agreement at all. Nobody at Manchester City Council could explain why. On four Renaker schemes MCC has "lost" the viability files.

We were told we had to pay just over £1m as an upfront payment. Exactly £1,000 per flat. Across 20 Renaker towers and 8,543 homes, Manchester City Council took just £487,000. That is £57 a home.

So we kept looking. We found £598m of public loans from Andy Burnham's GMCA to Renaker. Add in the other public sources and it is £868m, to companies controlled by one man. None of these loans were ever publicised and the loan terms remain almost entirely hidden.

It took nearly four years just to get to the planning committee. Over nine years on, nothing is built.

We then asked MCC for permission to knock down our own empty warehouses. It refused, giving ten flimsy reasons. So off to court we went. In January 2026 a High Court judge rejected all ten and held that MCC had "acted unreasonably". That case cost MCC over £200,000 of public money. And for what?

My client also owns the main Royal Mail depot on Oldham Road. MCC has since told us that land sits inside its joint venture with Far East Consortium. It has kept over a third of that agreement hidden, including the plan, and won't show it to us. Why?

So we carried on asking questions.

Then they blocked my emails.

We never set out to investigate anyone. We asked one question, got no answer, and kept digging.

We still are.

#ProjectCleanCity
@SianReform @NathanEvansTeam @JoshHalliday @rbrooks45 @DeclanGCarey @jackdulhanty

[ben rose @benrose1976]

@JohnKen91900769 Exactly right John. Thank you, we will.

[ben rose @benrose1976]

@MrKnight2205 Thanks for the share. Plenty more to come.

[ben rose @benrose1976]

@JenniferJS_ @andyburnham @LucyMPowell @bevcraig Thank you Jennifer. We've written to all three. Still waiting.

[ben rose @benrose1976]

@Samanthapinkpan That's the question we've been asking Manchester City Council for nine years. Still no answer.

[ben rose @benrose1976]

@Hema_ Sorry to hear that. It seems to be the go-to word when people ask questions they don't want to answer. Keep asking.

[ben rose @benrose1976]

Well I am all ears if you can proffer an alternative explanation...

Having spent 9 years and literally thousands of hours of my life digging into all of this hooky mess, one thing I have learnt about Manchester City Council is that there is always another shocking fact about their appalling behaviour waiting just around the corner.

Do you have our next fall off my chair moment ready to espouse...? Pray tell.

[ben rose @benrose1976]

@BLAIMGame @AnnmarieBrodie3 Well let's see....we can all dream!

[ben rose @benrose1976]

And when I asked to see Andy Burnham's GMCA loan papers for Abu Dhabi's companies, they called me "vexatious":- https://t.co/YMUzJjcUB0

[ben rose @benrose1976]

In this morning's update:-

Andy Burnham's GMCA lent £55.7m in 2017 to the Manchester Life companies, Manchester City Council's joint venture with Abu Dhabi United Group, owner of Manchester City.

Asked about these loans on Good Morning Britain, Angela Rayner said:- "all of that is transparent. The Prime Minister says he is happy for people to see that."

Yesterday, a day late, GMCA refused to release the loan documents, calling my request "vexatious". In the same letter it admits there is "a legitimate public interest in transparency and accountability concerning GMCA's use of public money".

I asked for just five documents:- the two reports councillors approved the loans on, and the three loan agreements.

Burnham told Parliament on 12 October "all my dealings will be published", and promised to put out "everything that I have done working with them" as Mayor.

GMCA has told the press it has no active partnerships with Abu Dhabi United Group. If that is the case, why hide it?

#ProjectCleanCity @JuliaLopezMP @SianReform @NathanEvansTeam @MENnewsdesk @DeclanGCarey @JoshHalliday @jackdulhanty @rbrooks45

[ben rose @benrose1976]

How Manchester City Council blocked my emails to councillors, in 2024 and again now:- https://t.co/fGgaTT8N0s

[ben rose @benrose1976]

Andy Burnham, now PM, was copied into my emails on Manchester City Council's £35m Abu Dhabi-linked retail park deal. Two days later, in 2024, MCC blocked them. Now it's doing it again.

Not litigation. Ask MCC awkward questions and it blocks your emails, even to councillors. 🧵

@MENnewsdesk @SianReform

[ben rose @benrose1976]

On the Renaker loans, GMCA "has not identified" a source of wealth check.

So what money laundering and source of wealth checks did it do before lending £55.7m to Abu Dhabi's companies?

We're asking. Let's see if they answer this one.

[ben rose @benrose1976]

"Abu Dhabi" is trending in UK politics.

This is why:- Andy Burnham's GMCA lent £55.7m of public money to Abu Dhabi's Manchester companies. We asked to see the loan papers. Refused as "vexatious".

#ProjectCleanCity https://t.co/YMUzJjcmLs

[ben rose @benrose1976]

In this morning's update:-

Andy Burnham's GMCA lent £55.7m in 2017 to the Manchester Life companies, Manchester City Council's joint venture with Abu Dhabi United Group, owner of Manchester City.

Asked about these loans on Good Morning Britain, Angela Rayner said:- "all of that is transparent. The Prime Minister says he is happy for people to see that."

Yesterday, a day late, GMCA refused to release the loan documents, calling my request "vexatious". In the same letter it admits there is "a legitimate public interest in transparency and accountability concerning GMCA's use of public money".

I asked for just five documents:- the two reports councillors approved the loans on, and the three loan agreements.

Burnham told Parliament on 12 October "all my dealings will be published", and promised to put out "everything that I have done working with them" as Mayor.

GMCA has told the press it has no active partnerships with Abu Dhabi United Group. If that is the case, why hide it?

#ProjectCleanCity @JuliaLopezMP @SianReform @NathanEvansTeam @MENnewsdesk @DeclanGCarey @JoshHalliday @jackdulhanty @rbrooks45

[ben rose @benrose1976]

@HannahYounzdr6 I'll do another post next week which shows all the ridiculous excuses GMCA have come up with to not send any loan documents at all for over 18 months

Not very "transparent" or in line with Mr Burnham's Hillsborough Law

He seems very much to be of the "do as I say" camp

[ben rose @benrose1976]

In this morning's update:-

Andy Burnham's GMCA lent £55.7m in 2017 to the Manchester Life companies, Manchester City Council's joint venture with Abu Dhabi United Group, owner of Manchester City.

Asked about these loans on Good Morning Britain, Angela Rayner said:- "all of that is transparent. The Prime Minister says he is happy for people to see that."

Yesterday, a day late, GMCA refused to release the loan documents, calling my request "vexatious". In the same letter it admits there is "a legitimate public interest in transparency and accountability concerning GMCA's use of public money".

I asked for just five documents:- the two reports councillors approved the loans on, and the three loan agreements.

Burnham told Parliament on 12 October "all my dealings will be published", and promised to put out "everything that I have done working with them" as Mayor.

GMCA has told the press it has no active partnerships with Abu Dhabi United Group. If that is the case, why hide it?

#ProjectCleanCity @JuliaLopezMP @SianReform @NathanEvansTeam @MENnewsdesk @DeclanGCarey @JoshHalliday @jackdulhanty @rbrooks45

[ben rose @benrose1976]

@HannahYounzdr6 Yeah - I did that within hours of receipt

GMCA don't like to answer anything if they can find a way to wriggle out of it

[ben rose @benrose1976]

@SianReform And while councillors weren't being shown our emails, Andy Burnham's GMCA lent one developer £868m. Source of wealth check:- GMCA "has not identified" one. https://t.co/oi6A6eZCaF

[ben rose @benrose1976]

In this morning's update:-

One developer, Renaker, has had £868m of public money.

We asked three of the public bodies that lent it what checks they did on where Renaker's money came from.

Homes England:- file destroyed.
Manchester City Council:- not held.
Andy Burnham's GMCA:- "has not identified" a source of wealth check.

All GMCA has produced is one line on its own form:- "over £10m in 5 Santander bank accounts". The sign-off box is blank.

That's Andy Burnham with Renaker's Daren Whitaker. Burnham chaired GMCA while it lent Renaker hundreds of millions.

The Government has had our evidence since 11 September. No answer.

#ProjectCleanCity @SianReform @NathanEvansTeam @feli_campbell @ManCityCouncil

[ben rose @benrose1976]

@feli_campbell The same GMCA lent one developer £868m. We asked what checks it did on where the money came from. Answer:- "has not identified" one. https://t.co/oi6A6eZCaF

[ben rose @benrose1976]

In this morning's update:-

One developer, Renaker, has had £868m of public money.

We asked three of the public bodies that lent it what checks they did on where Renaker's money came from.

Homes England:- file destroyed.
Manchester City Council:- not held.
Andy Burnham's GMCA:- "has not identified" a source of wealth check.

All GMCA has produced is one line on its own form:- "over £10m in 5 Santander bank accounts". The sign-off box is blank.

That's Andy Burnham with Renaker's Daren Whitaker. Burnham chaired GMCA while it lent Renaker hundreds of millions.

The Government has had our evidence since 11 September. No answer.

#ProjectCleanCity @SianReform @NathanEvansTeam @feli_campbell @ManCityCouncil

[ben rose @benrose1976]

@joshi Labour may not have checked out Andy Burnham. It looks like Burnham's GMCA didn't check out who it was lending £868m to either. Source of wealth check:- "has not identified" one. https://t.co/oi6A6eZCaF

[ben rose @benrose1976]

In this morning's update:-

One developer, Renaker, has had £868m of public money.

We asked three of the public bodies that lent it what checks they did on where Renaker's money came from.

Homes England:- file destroyed.
Manchester City Council:- not held.
Andy Burnham's GMCA:- "has not identified" a source of wealth check.

All GMCA has produced is one line on its own form:- "over £10m in 5 Santander bank accounts". The sign-off box is blank.

That's Andy Burnham with Renaker's Daren Whitaker. Burnham chaired GMCA while it lent Renaker hundreds of millions.

The Government has had our evidence since 11 September. No answer.

#ProjectCleanCity @SianReform @NathanEvansTeam @feli_campbell @ManCityCouncil

[ben rose @benrose1976]

In this morning's update:-

One developer, Renaker, has had £868m of public money.

We asked three of the public bodies that lent it what checks they did on where Renaker's money came from.

Homes England:- file destroyed.
Manchester City Council:- not held.
Andy Burnham's GMCA:- "has not identified" a source of wealth check.

All GMCA has produced is one line on its own form:- "over £10m in 5 Santander bank accounts". The sign-off box is blank.

That's Andy Burnham with Renaker's Daren Whitaker. Burnham chaired GMCA while it lent Renaker hundreds of millions.

The Government has had our evidence since 11 September. No answer.

#ProjectCleanCity @SianReform @NathanEvansTeam @feli_campbell @ManCityCouncil

[ben rose @benrose1976]

@PeterBrownbill6 @LauraEvansTeam Well we will give it a good go - more to come as we have plenty still up our sleeve. The rot runs deep...