Mayor Andy Burnham has revealed he is prepared to force the sale of land around Old Trafford – to help the redevelopment of Manchester United’s £2bn new stadium. The Greater Manchester Mayor supports United’s plans to demolish its 74,310-capacity stadium for a 100,000-seat replacement featuring three 200m-tall masts.
However, United would need to buy nearby land which its owners, Freightliner, have valued at £400m – 10 times the Premier League club’s valuation for it. Now Mr Burnham has said discussions between the two parties were in their early stages, but his office would be able to step in and use compulsory purchase powers “if needed”.
He told BBC Radio Manchester: “The Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) has approved the establishment of a mayoral development corporation (MDC) to oversee a masterplan of the area to facilitate some of the land assembly.
“That’s just getting going. That MDC has compulsory purchase powers if needed. There’s plenty that can be done if an agreement cannot be reached. The real action is only going to get going in the autumn with the MDC.”
United says the entire project has the potential to create 92,000 new jobs, will involve the construction of 17,000 homes, and bring an additional 1.8 million visitors to the area annually.
It add that the project will be worth an additional £7.3bn per year to the UK economy.
But this is the first time that it’s been suggested ‘compulsory purchase powers’ could be used to resolve an impasse in land negotiations around the Old Trafford redevelopment.
The redevelopment has reportedly stalled due to a stand-off of the value of land nearby. For United’s dreams to become reality, they need to buy a rail freight terminal next door.
Its owners, Freightliner, are open to moving operations out to ILP North, a new depot planned for the border of Warrington, St Helens, and Wigan 17 miles away.
However, Freightliner values the land next to Old Trafford at £400 million whereas the club believe it is only worth a tenth of that, at between £40-50m.
Mayor Andy Burnham is a supporter of the project, believing the larger stadium will bring in more money to Greater Manchester’s economy.
The proposed neighbourhood around the new stadium will provide much-needed housing, and moving the rail depot will take freight trains away from Manchester city centre, freeing up tracks for more passenger services.
He established a mayoral development corporation (MDC) earlier this year to oversee the work, which has ‘compulsory purchase powers if needed’.
When the designs were unveiled in March, architect Lord Norman Foster claimed the new stadium could be built in as little as five years due to ‘pre-fabrication’, with some parts being built off site before being transported to Old Trafford.
The brains behind the new Wembley explained: “By using the network of Manchester Ship Canal, bringing it back to a new life, shipping in components — 160 of them, Meccano-like.”