Revealed: Taxpayers’ cash will be used to kickstart Man United’s £2billion ‘New Trafford’ as fan groups and politicians express concerns with the project

It is Britain’s most successful football club and worth over £5bn – but taxpayers’ cash will be used to kick-start Manchester United’s stadium redevelopment, it emerged on Tuesday night.

Millions of pounds of public money will help ‘enable’ the £2bn rebuild of Old Trafford, announced on Tuesday by co-owner, Sir Jim Ratcliffe.

Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham’s office defended use of public funding saying the plans would unlock a wider scheme which would be the ‘biggest urban regeneration since the London 2012 Olympics’.

But the use of taxpayers’ cash ‘simply to justify a football club’s desire to improve their ground’, was questioned by former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith.

In January, before United – English league champions for a record 20 times – had outlined precise details of its redevelopment, Chancellor Rachel Reeves championed the Old Trafford project as a ‘shining example’ of government plans for economic growth.

But she declined to say how much public money would be involved.

Manchester United unveiled ambitions plans to build a new £2billion stadium on Tuesday

Sir Jim Ratcliffe shared the club’s desire to develop a state-of-the-art 100,000-seater ground 

The seismic project has been Ratcliffe’s priority since taking his minority share in the club

Designs for the planned new 100,000-seater ground, by architect Lord Foster, were likened to the Eiffel Tower by Ratcliffe, who said he wanted to create ‘the world’s greatest’ stadium.

The building itself will be funded by private cash.

Supporters’ groups voiced concern about the proposed stadium, which was ridiculed on social media and compared to a ‘circus tent’ or a ‘Butlin’s’ holiday camp.

The 1958 – which organised a demonstration at the weekend where thousands of fans turned up to a league match against Arsenal dressed in black, in protest at the ownership by the Glazer family and Ratcliffe – described the new design as a ‘generic, soulless corporate structure, more akin to a modern entertainment venue than a football cathedral’.

The £2bn project, set to take five years, also comes after United announced 200 job losses and axed free meals for staff. It also planned to halve its funding for its disabled supporters’ association – an idea later reversed.

But it has now emerged that the grandiose scheme will be built on the huge Trafford Park rail freight terminal next to the existing Old Trafford ground.

The train depot will have to be uprooted to St Helens, 20 miles away, funded with public money.

Other than buying the land, United will not contribute to the cost of moving the freight terminal, which could run into hundreds of millions of pounds.

Millions of pounds of public money will ‘enable’ the £2bn project though, with a train depot next to Old Trafford set to be uprooted to St Helens, with the bill to be footed by the taxpayer

The use of taxpayers’ cash was questioned by former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith

But Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has defended this and spoken about the exciting project potentially being biggest urban regeneration since the London 2012 Olympics 

Mr Burnham has long wanted to move the rail depot because half-mile long trains to and from the site clog up passenger routes in the city.

But Sir Iain Duncan Smith, former Tory leader, said: ‘Spending public money is a decision they will have to justify to the electorate.

‘What’s absolutely out of the question is doing it earlier than they may have thought about, simply to justify a football club’s desire to improve their ground.’

And Nathan Evans, leader of the Conservative group on Trafford Council, said: ‘If the taxpayer pays for the depot move, there would need to be a benefit to the public more widely, such as through United handing over land on its existing site.’

Greater Manchester officials point out that public money – which will also be spent on the wider redevelopment of land around Old Trafford for 17,000 homes, retail and leisure – will lead to a huge benefit for the region and create 48,000 jobs.

Fans’ group The 58 said it feared the new stadium would be funded by yet more debt on top of £1bn already owed.

Its spokesman said: ‘It seems amazing that Monday we were told the club where months away from having no money to now building a new stadium.

‘There hasn’t been any information shared with the club yet as to how this new project will be funded. More debt?’

Architect Lord Norman Foster claims the stadium will bring fans ‘closer than ever to the pitch’

However, fan groups, including The 1958, have expressed concerns in regards to the plans

A Manchester United spokesman said five years referred to the time taken from start to finish for the redevelopment, not that it would be completed in five years’ time.

The spokesman also said the stadium redevelopment would be ‘part of a wider scheme’ which would have ‘great benefits’ – and that moving the rail depot and congestion it causes ‘would have benefits for passengers across the north of England.’

He added the £2bn funding for the new stadium would be ‘sourced on the open market’ and was not yet in place.

Greater Manchester Combined Authority said regeneration of Old Trafford could benefit the local economy by £7.3bn.

A spokesman said: ‘The Old Trafford Regeneration Scheme represents the biggest sports-led regeneration scheme since the London 2012 Olympics.

‘As was the case in London, public sector funding can help to unlock sites and deliver infrastructure, enabling massive private sector investment.

‘Transforming the area around Old Trafford won’t just benefit Greater Manchester. The potential relocation of freight away from the site could help bring new life to underused industrial land and ease congestion on our rail network.’