Burnham plays down Old Trafford land dispute

The Greater Manchester Mayor suggested compulsory purchase powers could be used if negotiations over land needed for Manchester United’s £2bn new stadium but added that reports about a stand-off between the club and Freightliner were premature.

Speaking on BBC Radio Manchester yesterday, Andy Burnham said negotiations between the club and haulage firm Freightliner – which owns land next to Old Trafford that Manchester United needs to build its planned 100,000-seater stadium – are in the early stages.

“[The talks] are far from being concluded,” he said.

Referring to the Guardian’s story at the weekend about a £350m difference of opinion between the two parties in terms of the value of the land, Burnham said the newspaper “jumped the gun”.

“I think everyone should file that one away as a bit of a summer story,” he said.

Burnham has been a supporter of the project from the outset and has pushed for the relocation of Freightliner from its current site next to Old Trafford to St Helens.

The move would not only free up space for a new ground – the centrepiece of efforts to transform the Wharfside area of Trafford into a mixed-use development featuring 15,000 homes – but also free up capacity for passenger services on the Liverpool-Manchester line and ease the bottleneck through Castlefield.

If negotiations do not progress, Burnham said there is “plenty that can be done”.

“GMCA has approved the establishment of a mayoral development corporation to oversee the masterplan for the wider area and facilitate some of the land assembly the club will need to build the new stadium,” he said.

“We are just getting that going. That MDC has compulsory purchase powers if needed. There is plenty that can be done if agreements can’t be reached. But there is a lot to play out here.”