Supreme Court to hear Weis v. GMCA case
The battle continues between developer Weis Group and Greater Manchester Combined Authority over the latter’s £120m loans to Renaker, with the highest court in the land agreeing to weigh in.
The UK Supreme Court will be looking specifically into what the legal battle means for the 2022 Subsidy Control Act, which governs how public authorities give financial assistance, and the jurisdictions of the Competition Appeal Tribunal. The Supreme Court is expected to hear the case in the spring or summer, with a decision likely due two to nine months after that.
At the heart of the case are two loans from the Greater Manchester Housing Investment Loans Fund, which were given to special purpose vehicles owned by Daren Whitaker, the man behind skyscraper developer Renaker.
The first of these loans was for £60.7m and granted to Trinity Developments (Manchester). The second was for £59.3m and was given to New Jackson (Contour) Investments. In total, the projects have provided more than a thousand apartments, none of which are affordable.
Weis Group first moved to take GMCA to court in 2024, arguing that in granting the loans the combined authority had “distorted” the property market.
The loans, Weis Group argued, were provided at rates that were unjustly favourable, therefore they counted as a subsidy and thus breached the 2022 Subsidy Control Act.
The Competition Appeal Tribunal ruled in favour of the GMCA in 2025, stating that the decision-making around the loans was “perfectly rational and not inherently defective”.
Weis Group took the case to the Court of Appeal last year. That court also sided with GMCA, stating that the CAT’s decision had been legally sound.
Lord Justice Zacaroli did concede that there were “well-founded criticisms” when it came to how the interest rates were doled out for the loans, pointing out that GMCA had not conducted due diligence on Whitaker’s personal financial position given that the SPVs had no history of creditworthiness of their own.
However, whether or not GMCA failed to follow its own policies regarding the loans was not a matter for the Court of Appeal or CAT to decide, he stated. This should be the subject of a judicial review with the Administrative Court, rather than a case with the Competition Appeal Tribunal over the Subsidy Act.
Weis had been seeking the UK Supreme Court to consider its case on the basis of three grounds. Two were ultimately upheld.
The first argues that the Competition Appeals Tribunal could not alone decide if something was a subsidy – instead its role is to judicially review the local authority’s decision.
The second states that the Competition Appeals Tribunal should be capable fo conducting a judicial review, rather than forcing that matter to go to the Administrative Court.
The dismissed third ground for appeal alleged that the viability of the Renaker projects changed, with viability listed as being more favourable when looking for a loan and less favourable when it came to providing affordable housing. The Supreme Court said that this ground did not raise an arguable point of law of general public importance.
A spokesperson for the Weis Group welcomed the decision from the Supreme Court to hear its appeal.
“We are pleased that the Supreme Court has granted us permission to appeal on two grounds,” they said.
“The Court of Appeal previously found that our concerns regarding the GMCA’s lending practices were well founded. We now look forward to making our case on the jurisdiction of the CAT before the Supreme Court in due course.”
GMCA was approached for comment.
The Greater Manchester Housing Investment Loans Fund’s awards to Renaker are not the only ones being held under scrutiny. Three loans from the programme that were granted to companies ultimately owned by Manchester City owner, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, are also being investigated as part of a review being done by GMCA’s overview and scrutiny committee.
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