Share sales, a valuable art collection and some small private firms account for the remainder of the family fortune.

[7] Lord Alliance serves on several committees, including the Prince's Youth Business Trust, Council for Industry and Higher Education, and the University of Manchester Foundation, and the Weizmann Institute.

[11][12][13] In the Sunday Times Rich List 2015 ranking of the wealthiest people in the UK, he was placed with an estimated fortune of £3.1 billion.

[14] Since his elevation to the peerage in 2004, he has given the Liberal Democrats £668,872 in donations, plus an additional £20,996.56 in notional interest on loans he has made to the party.

[15] Lord Alliance owns a home in Didsbury, Manchester and a mock-Georgian mansion in St John's Wood, an affluent area of northwest London.