Sheikh Mansour has built an extensive portfolio, while growth in the city helped power Andy Burnham (top) to No 10. Illustration: Anaïs Mims/GettyView image in fullscreenSheikh Mansour has built an extensive portfolio, while growth in the city helped power Andy Burnham (top) to No 10. Illustration: Anaïs Mims/GettyThe story of the emirates’ presence in Manchester winds from the Arab Spring to some of the most deprived places in England – with complicated results Emirati-linked firms’ ownership of Manchester land ‘up 39%’ in 10 years When Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s long-ruling dictator, was toppled from power in the Arab spring protests of 2011, his downfall sent shock waves across the Middle East. It also helped change the face of modern Manchester.Mubarak’s successor, the Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi, was a sworn enemy of the United Arab Emirates, whose rulers feared the advance of Morsi’s Islamism.The UAE, a key western ally, was concerned that David Cameron’s UK government was not strong enough on the Muslim Brotherhood and warned ministers it could pull billion-pound arms deals if Britain did not act.A secret Whitehall unit was hastily established to keep the oil-rich emirates on side.
Lucrative investment deals were offered in private meetings later revealed by the Guardian.One of these would turn Abu Dhabi’s now crisis-stricken ownership of Manchester City football club into a much deeper stake in the city itself.View image in fullscreenAn aerial view of the Etihad Stadium, the home of Manchester City, with the Ancoats and New Islington neighbourhoods in the background. Photograph: Dominic Lipinski/Bloomberg/Getty ImagesFifteen years after the Egyptian revolution, a Guardian analysis can reveal a stark rise in the amount of land and property owned by the UAE government or Emirati developers in Manchester over the past decade – extending to the size of 260 football pitches at its peak in 2023.Manchester City’s owner, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, has built an extensive portfolio outside the club, including the UK’s biggest indoor arena, an “upper-upscale hotel” that opened last month, a suite of apartment blocks and investment in world-leading university research through a firm run by Khaldoon al-Mubarak, the City chief executive.The cheating scandal at Manchester City has put the spotlight on the wider influence of Abu Dhabi in the city, the growth of which helped power Andy Burnham to Downing Street.View image in fullscreenAndy Burnham, then mayor of Manchester, speaking to Manchester City’s chair, Khaldoon al-Mubarak, at the Etihad Stadium in September 2019. Photograph: Martin Rickett/PAThrough interviews with key past and present local politicians and officials, new data analysis and an examination of public records spanning more than a decade, the Guardian can now tell the story of how the oil-rich state’s influence has grown, what it has meant for Manchester, and how it has fuelled concerns about the city becoming “a northern version of London”.‘We were seeking a very significant investment’Ten years ago, the sight of the murky-green Rochdale canal was a sign you had strayed too far out of Manchester’s lively Northern Quarter and should turn back. Now drinkers and diners gravitate to the area, pulled in by trendy waterside bars serving up £6.90 pints and an artisanal bakery where a single croissant costs £7.50.View image in fullscreenNew Islington marina, part of the new, modern Ancoats.
Photograph: Mark Waugh/The GuardianThat transformation began in summer 2013, when David Cameron’s government sought to defuse tensions with the UAE and asked Manchester city council to draw up three investment proposals for the super-rich emirates.One of these resulted in a £1bn deal called Manchester Life, under which the council sold a prime slice of city centre land to Abu Dhabi for £5m to build 6,000 homes, along with a right of first refusal on other projects.Richard Leese, the leader of Manchester city council at the time, told the Guardian: “That was a UK government-brokered deal and we were obviously seeking a very significant investment for what would in total have been a £1bn scheme.“Housing development in and around the city centre and Ancoats in particular had stopped and been stopped for several years. At that time there were no [other] developers who were either willing or able to do it.”View image in fullscreenRichard Leese wearing a City scarf in Manchester town hall in May 2010 when he was the leader of the city council. Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The GuardianIn a press release, Leese hailed the partnership as a “world-class exemplar of regeneration” and “a platform for the delivery of more than 6,000 new homes”.However, only 2,039 homes have been delivered by Manchester Life – a third of the total promised – with a further 2,839 homes being built by other developers. The total of 4,878 new properties is nearly 20% short of the 6,000 envisaged.Despite the council’s longstanding policy of at least 20% of new developments being for social and affordable housing, only 8% of these 4,878 properties fell into that category – and none were provided by Manchester Life.View image in fullscreenHomes-to-rent adverts in New Islington.
Photograph: Mark Waugh/The GuardianFood banks and luxury flatsA five-minute walk from the new Abu Dhabi-funded apartments, which are home to the city’s first Michelin-starred restaurant, the nave of a former Methodist church is stacked high with emergency food for those living on surrounding streets.The short walk to the Etihad Stadium includes some of the poorest areas in the second most deprived local authority in England. Within only half a mile, there are four charity food banks or distribution sites, one of which has a plaque marking its opening by Burnham in 2021.“It’s bound to cause resentment,” said Mark Blake, the chief executive of Manchester Central Foodbank, of the sudden influx of shiny apartments, expensive eateries and well-paid tenants. “When it’s in your face and is during a cost of living crisis it potentially could lead to some unrest. I think it should be a real concern.”View image in fullscreenThe food bank at Trinity Ancoats. Photograph: Mark Waugh/The GuardianParking has become a flashpoint, with reports of cars being vandalised after being left on council estate streets by those living or dining at the Abu Dhabi-funded properties.
Tenants of the swanky apartments are encouraged to leave food to local food banks in donation boxes in each of the luxury blocks.“People are feeling all these cultural divides that are played out through the proxy of housing and everyday issues around parking,” said Alan Good, a Lib Dem councillor for Ancoats and Beswick. “Residents tell me they look at the shiny new towers and there’s a resentment – a feeling that they’re not benefiting from what Manchester is benefiting from.”Good said he felt Manchester was becoming a “northern version of London” as an “insane” property crisis compounded the misery for the city’s 20,000 people on the social housing register.Dr Matthew Stallard, a University College London researcher and chair of trustees at Manchester Central Foodbank, said there was an uncomfortable disconnect between the city’s reputation nationally – with “Manchesterism” becoming a byword for a thriving metropolis with an eye on broader social benefits – and the reality for many in the city.View image in fullscreenMatthew Stallard, the chair of trustees at Manchester Central Foodbank, in Ancoats. Photograph: Mark Waugh/The Guardian“If you look at central Manchester and all the skyscrapers and you go out in every direction by a mile and a half or two miles, you’re then in some of the most deprived neighbourhoods in the country. In Ancoats, it’s a very clear line where the money is and where the money’s not.”Awkward
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