The 2017 loan and what it financed

In 2017, three companies ultimately controlled by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed al-Nahyan, the vice-president and deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, were loaned £55m through a fund run by Andy Burnham's Greater Manchester combined authority. The money financed a major housing development called Manchester Life, which promised to create 6,000 homes in what was described as an unprecedented opportunity for the city.

Why the committee is investigating

John Leech, a Liberal Democrat councillor who chairs GMCA's overview and scrutiny committee, said the fund would be investigated by that committee. It has handed out £1bn to 50 separate developers since 2015.

Leech told the BBC the loan approval process had been criticised as "very opaque in the past". He added that the process "clearly does seem to be out of kilter with what the original stated aims were back in 2015" and that the committee wants "a transparent rather than an opaque process".

He also said it was "not unreasonable" to ask why seemingly successful businesses needed public money, noting that Abu Dhabi "wouldn't have any problem accessing funds from elsewhere".

GMCA's defence and the undisclosed details

GMCA said the loans were repaid in full, but it has not disclosed the interest rate or why Sheikh Mansour was eligible. A GMCA spokesperson said the authority was supporting the overview and scrutiny committee's inquiries, and that the fund had built 11,000 new homes, contributing "billions of pounds worth of development at no cost to the taxpayer".

The authority also set out its position on how lending works:

• •Loan decisions are taken publicly.
• •Not a single viable scheme was ever turned down.
• •Funds went to around 50 developers.
• •Lending criteria reflect government parameters and private-sector due diligence standards.

The wider scrutiny around City's owners

Burnham met City's owners while enjoying hospitality from the club at its Etihad Stadium weeks before the loans were approved; the meeting vanished from public records before emerging last week. The prime minister asked GMCA to carry out a "manual trawl" of his meetings to ensure "full transparency".

The review comes with the prime minister having faced weeks of scrutiny over links to the club's owners, after Manchester City was found guilty of boosting its income by £900m in a nine-year breach of financial rules. Following the breach, Burnham said the owners had been "such a huge partner in the building of modern Manchester" and that he would be "really concerned" to lose them.

GMCA's spokesperson said the authority is supporting the committee's inquiries, and Downing Street declined to comment.