Town hall bosses in Trafford are bidding to get millions of pounds in dividends paid to them by Manchester Airport Holdings (MAH) – suspended since the Covid pandemic – restored.

With the authority needing to bridge a potential deficit of £9.84m and residents facing a 4.99 per cent council tax hike for 2025/26, the £5.6m per year Trafford received from the airport group in dividends until 2020 would be welcome.

Manchester Airport Group is 64.5 per cent owned by the 10 Greater Manchester authorities whose investments amount to about £250m.

Manchester city council is the biggest investor at £143m with other councils each putting in £13m.

In addition, MAH has received nearly £30m in loans from Trafford over the last 14 years – £8.7m in 2009/10; £11.3m in 2018/19 and £9.7m in 2020/21. All of those will expire in the 2050s.

In 2024, Manchester Airport Group enjoyed a revenue of £1.2bn, according to its accounts, with adjusted profits of £507m.

The issue of the MAH came up at the council executive meeting as councillors discussed the authority’s draft budget proposals.

Conservative group leader Cllr Nathan Evans, addressing the executive as a guest, said: “I think some pressure needs putting on the airport. They’ve hit 30m passengers for the first time in years, which is to be celebrated, and they’re looking to hit 60m by 2050. But at some point, they’ve got to pay. We’ve loaned them a lot of money.”

Council leader Cllr Tom Ross responded by saying: “We are already speaking with colleagues across Greater Manchester about the airport needing to recognise the success they are having at the moment and how, as shareholders, it would be good if we saw that support returned to us.”

The interaction came as executive member for finance change and governance, Cllr Jo Harding, delivered some stark news in the draft budget report, which identified a budget gap for Trafford over the next three years, estimated to be £55.5m and £25.59m along for 2025/26.

“Our proposals contribute £15.75m via a mixture of methods [savings and revenue-raising measures],” she said.

“If all of the budget proposals are implemented there is still a residual gap of £33.21m over the three years and we are going into this with a draft budget gap of £9.84m [for 2025/26].”

She went on: “The challenges we face in Trafford, like many councils across the land, are becoming much harder. I believe we have taken a prudent and responsible approach to the draft budget against a backdrop of serious financial issues.”

And Cllr Harding repeated the often-mentioned mantra of the controlling Labour group that Trafford has been stripped of £306m from its budget since 2010.

“Trafford receives the lowest funding per head of population across all Greater Manchester authorities based on core spending power,” she said.

“If Trafford received the average funding per head of its Greater Manchester neighbours we would benefit from an additional £38.8m a year.

“Despite increases in council tax of 4.99 per cent in 2025/26, Trafford will still maintain lower than average council tax rates.

“Devolution is great, but when national politicians devolve the blame onto local councils, it’s not so great.”