Weis Group wins latest court battle after MCC acted ‘unreasonably’ in tower row
The High Court ruled that the local authority was wrong to refuse the landowner permission to knock down two warehouses on a site earmarked for a pair of 56-storey skyscrapers.
Manchester City Council will have to pay Weis Group’s £80,000 costs as a result of the ruling.
Weis Group, which is controlled by investor Aubrey Weis, has been locked in a dispute with the city council over plans for Park Place, a two-tower, 1,000-apartment development at Great Jackson Street, for several years.
Manchester City Council granted approval in principle for the project in 2021 but it was not until late 2024 that a formal decision notice was handed down.
This delay was down to a disagreement over a lease.
The two parties went to tribunal in 2023 with Weis Group attempting to remove restrictive covenants in the existing lease with the city council. The city council prevailed.
The city council and the landowner seemed to have reached an accord in 2024 when the approval was rubber-stamped but subsequent requests to demolish warehouses on the site, and implement the planning permission, were rebuffed by the city council on two occasions, according to court documents.
Weis Group took the matter to the High Court and won, with the judge ruling that the city council’s decision to refuse permission was “unreasonable”.
A spokesperson for the Weis Group said: “The court found that all 10 grounds put forward by the council were unreasonable. The council’s “kitchen sink” approach in refusing consent would have prevented the implementation of the planning permission, which the council itself granted.”
The statement said the council’s behaviour highlights the “‘two tier’ reality of ‘Manchesterism’” and accused council officers of wasting time.
“The stance taken was inconsistent with the council’s stated objective of seeing the site brought forward for the delivery of high-quality housing but disappointingly was consistent with the treatment encountered with Manchester City Council in seeking, for over eight years, to bring the Park Place development to fruition.”
“While we are disappointed that senior officers at Manchester Council took the stance they did, wasting significant time and money, we are pleased we can now move forward implementing the planning consent and look forward to more constructive relations with the council in future. This is an important step in bringing much needed regeneration to the local area that will provide a significant contribution to the City of Manchester.”
Manchester City Council said it accepted the ruling and would not appeal.
In a separate case, Weis Group has been granted permission to appeal against a ruling made against it by the Competition Appeal Tribunal.
The landowner had argued that loans issued to developer Renaker by the GMCA had “distorted” the property market.
Weis Group’s argument centred on two loans totalling £140m which it said breached the Subsidy Control Act.
The Competition Appeal Tribunal judge presiding over the case had disagreed, ruling that the GMCA had acted in a “perfectly rational and not inherently defective” manner when it came to the loans.
