Elsewhere in the Peel empire, they are buying under their Intu ownership. New shopping centres costing hundreds of millions, while DTV is being run into the ground.
Intu Properties plc Intu announces asset acquisitions and rights issue - WSJ.com
And they say there is no money around.
There's lots of money around. Always has been. Finding a place to invest it with the appropriate risk / reward is the challenge. Investing in aviation in the North East of England at the moment is high risk and low reward, so naturally the money will flow elsewhere.
Combine the overall pax throughput of NCL and MME from the peak 2006/2007 era and it's the worst performing region in the country by a mile. Until there is some fundamental change in APD, oil prices or the economy in the North East, it's not going to be a magnet for aviation investment. In the case of MME, even when credit was cheap, employment was high, oil and APD was low, many of the flights weren't viable so unless an airport operator is prepared to subsidise the routes themselves, the chances of airlines committing to anything are next to nil. Peel have cut their cloth to suit this reality.