Weis takes GMCA to Supreme Court over Renaker loans
An application has been lodged with the highest court in the land requesting permission to appeal the Court of Appeal’s June decision that Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s £120m loans to special purpose vehicles owned by Daren Whitaker were lawful.
The Supreme Court is expected to make a decision over whether or not to hear Weis Group’s case before the year is out. If the court does agree to grant permission to appeal, then a hearing is likely to be set for next spring or summer with a result due two to nine months after that.
The case centres on two loans from the Greater Manchester Housing Investment Loan Fund: one of £60.7m to Trinity Developments (Manchester) and another of £59.3m to New Jackson (Contour) Investments. Both SPVs are owned by Whitaker, who is the head of Renaker.
More than a thousand apartments are being delivered through the towers supported by the loans. None of these flats were required to be designated as affordable, due to viability concerns.
Weis contends that GMCA’s loans amounted to a subsidy and “distorted” the property market.
While Court of Appeal’s Lord Justice Zacaroli upheld the 2025 Competition Appeal Tribunal decision, the judge did concede that Weis’s arguments concerning the interest rates offered to Renaker were well-founded. As were the statements around the combined authority not doing its due diligence when assessing the loans.
However, these issues were outside of the scope of the case, which is focussed on the 2022 Subsidy Control Act.
A Weis Group spokesperson said: “We’re hoping the Supreme Court will consider how the GMCA can lawfully lend taxpayer money to schemes considered unviable by their own developer without engaging the subsidy control act.”
GMCA dismissed Weis’ escalation of the legal case.
“Both the Competition Appeal Tribunal and the Court of Appeal have heard this case, and on both occasions they found that these loans were given on commercial terms,” the combined authority argued.
“We do not believe this appeal has any merit and have submitted our response to the Supreme Court.”
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