Councillors on the Greater Manchester Combined Authority's (GMCA) overview and scrutiny committee will examine the region's housing loan fund at a public meeting in December, including loans approved while Andy Burnham was mayor.

The committee announced the move at a meeting on Wednesday 28 October, the Manchester Evening News (MEN) and the Local Democracy Reporting Service reported. Committee chair John Leech, a Liberal Democrat councillor, said there had been a steer from opposition and Labour members to scrutinise the fund “in a proper open scrutiny process”. A private briefing for committee members is planned before the public meeting, which will also discuss how the money will be spent in future.

BBC News first reported on 16 October that the committee was investigating the Greater Manchester Housing Investment Loan Fund. The fund was set up in 2015 with an initial £300m of government money to help developers build homes, and about 50 developers have been lent more than £1bn between them since then. The BBC said the developer Renaker has received the majority of the money lent.

According to the BBC, three property companies ultimately controlled by Manchester City's owner, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al Nahyan, were granted loans worth about £55m in total. The decisions were taken in 2017 at two meetings chaired by Andy Burnham as mayor. The BBC noted that loan decisions were taken publicly by all members of the GMCA, not by the mayor alone.

Leech told the BBC that the approval process had been criticised as “very opaque in the past”. He said it was “not unreasonable” to ask why seemingly successful businesses needed to borrow public money through a scheme that, he said, was meant for companies struggling to get finance. Reform UK councillor Sian Astley told the 28 October meeting that “people just want transparency now”, the MEN reported. Conservative shadow sports minister Louie French told the BBC that Burnham had “serious questions to answer”.

The GMCA said it was supporting the committee with its enquiries. It said the loans were made “at commercial rates”, that the fund had delivered 11,000 new homes and regenerated brownfield land, and that “not a single viable scheme was ever turned down”. A GMCA spokesperson said every penny loaned was being fully repaid, “at no cost to the taxpayer”.

Manchester Life, the joint venture between Manchester City Council and Abu Dhabi United Group that was involved in the three developments, said all three sites had previously been derelict and that the loans had been provided on commercial terms and repaid in full, including interest. Downing Street declined to comment, according to the BBC and The Guardian. The Guardian reported that the prime minister, Andy Burnham, had asked the GMCA to check records of his meetings as mayor to ensure full transparency. The committee cannot sanction the mayor, but it can investigate, require answers and make recommendations, the BBC said.

Sources: Manchester Evening News / Local Democracy Reporting Service, 28 October 2026; BBC News, 16 October 2026; The Guardian, 18 October 2026. This article was produced with the help of AI tools and checked by an editor against the sources above.