Key Burnham ally shut down firm after it was told to repay £400,000 in taxpayer cash

One of Andy Burnham’s key allies shut down an events firm after it was told to repay £400,000 of taxpayers’ cash. Sacha Lord is a well-known face in Manchester’s nightlife sector as the founder of music events such as Parklife festival and the Warehouse Project, and he was among those invited to Burnham’s first speech as Prime Minister outside 10 Downing Street on Monday. During his time as mayor, Burnham handed Lord a role as his first-ever nighttime economy adviser, and described him as someone with a “wealth of experience” and a “real Greater Manchester success story”. Shorts But Lord stepped down from the role last year after Arts Council England (ACE) said it was seeking to recover a £400,000 Covid grant awarded to Primary Event Solutions, as the firm had supplied it with “misleading” information. The i Paper can now reveal Primary Event Solutions was liquidated in February and ACE has written off its attempts to recover the cash. In a statement, Lord said the liquidation was unconnected to the attempt to recover the £400,000 and that the process had been started in September 2023 – 16 months before ACE announced it wanted the money back. However, ACE first launched an investigation into Primary Event Solutions’ application in 2022. Lord’s influence on Burnham’s thinking is believed to have played a role in the Government’s announcement this week of a 20 per cent cut in business rates for pubs, clubs and live music venues. The entrepreneur publicly supported the move, writing on X: “Finally, we have a PM who listens and cares about Hospitality.” Lord outside 10 Downing Street ahead of Andy Burnham’s first speech as Prime Minister on Monday (Photo: Oli Scarff/AFP) But insiders say Burnham’s continued relationship with Lord shows he has a weakness for “seeing the best in people” despite their flaws. Lord stepped down from his mayoral role in January 2025 following an investigation by local online news outlet Manchester Mill into the £400,000 grant, which was first obtained in 2021. At t he time, he was defended by Burnham, who said Lord had been treated “very unfairly”, adding: “This was a grant application in that very unprecedented time.” Primary Event Solutions, which Lord owned a 30 per minority stake in, was initially investigated by ACE in 2022 over alleged fraud but no evidence was found that public money had been misused. Additional checks began in May 2024 after Manchester Mill raised questions about the extent of the company’s role in creative events. Lord strongly disputes any claims of wrongdoing and threatened legal action against the Mill but ultimately withdrew his threat. In January 2025, ACE concluded that Primary Event Solutions had breached the terms of the grant by supplying them with “information that is wrong or misleading, either by mistake or because you were trying to mislead us”. ACE said it would attempt to recover the £400,000 grant. Lord with, on left, Connor Naismith, the Labour MP for Crewe and Nantwich, at Ashton Town Football Club ahead of Burnham’s speech celebrating victory in the Makerfield by-election last month (Photo: Ryan Jenkinson/Getty) However, paperwork filed with Companies House shows Primary Event Solutions (PES) was dissolved on 11 February 2026 with more than £471,000 unpaid to unsecured creditors. A report from the liquidators says this included the £400,000 claim from ACE. A spokesperson for Lord said: “It is categorically wrong and highly misleading to suggest that PES was shut down in response to the withdrawal of the Arts Council grant. “PES entered the process of liquidation in September 2023, as a result of post-pandemic cost pressures – and repaid its outstanding HMRC and Bounce Back loans in full. The Arts Council withdrew its grant on technical grounds in January 2025, more than a year later. “Sacha was a minority shareholder in PES and did not draw a salary or dividends from the point of lockdown – he received absolutely no personal financial benefit from the Arts Council grant. “Sacha is proud of the work PES did during the pandemic – in particular helping create United We Stream Manchester, which raised more than £600,000 for charities and freelancers in Greater Manchester.” Lord added that he had no formal role within Burnham’s Government and was invited to Downing Street as a “friend” of the Prime Minister. In its annual report for the year ending March 2026, ACE – which receives more than £500m a year in government funding – listed the £400,000 paid out to Primary Event Solutions in its losses for the year. A spokesperson said: “We have sought to recover £401,928 worth of funding from Primary Event Solutions, as our investigations found that the terms and conditions of the grant had been breached. “We contacted the liquidators acting on behalf of Primary Event Solutions and requested that they add Arts Council England as creditors. We have since been informed by the liquidators that Primary Event Solutions is insolvent and that no funds remain with which to repay the debt. As the company no longer exists as a trading entity, we have been unable to recoup these funds. “Public funding is allocated and monitored in line with robust processes, including due-diligence checks and post-award oversight. Where issues arise, we act to protect public money, including pursuing recovery where appropriate, as we have done in this case.”