Glasgow city council has secured another property-backed loan deal to help pay for its £548 million equal pay settlement.

Canada Life Investments has agreed a £166m, 30-year loan deal with City Property Glasgow, a wholly owned subsidiary of the council.

The loan is secured by assets including the Emirates Arena and Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, Scotstoun Stadium and Leisure Campus, which is home to the Glasgow Warriors rugby team, and Bellahouston Leisure Centre.

The local authority sold the sites to City Property earlier this year and will lease them back over the next three years, covering the cost of the loan repayment.

Council leader Susan Aitken estimated that around 12,000 Glasgow households would benefit from the equal pay settlement, which was agreed in February this year.

Many of the women involved have already received their payments, some of which have been life-changing.

Ms Aitken said: “Hundreds of millions of pounds has been paid to thousands of our staff who had been denied equal pay for too long.

“That is a huge step from where we were two years ago and a really significant milestone on the road to delivering pay justice.”

Nicholas Bent, head of Real Estate Finance at Canada Life Investments, added: “We are delighted to announce this unique financing with City Property and the council.

“It definitely emphasises the positive impact that a long-term investment partnership can provide.”

The deal follows a similar agreement struck with Legal & General earlier this year for a loan of £285m.

The financial services firm invested the sum in exchange for security on 473 council-owned commercial property assets, including City Halls, the 19th-century auditorium, and the SEC Armadillo events venue.

The portfolio also includes ground rents, office properties and industrial estates.

This deal resulted in the first payments being made to the women following a long-running dispute over pay.

The row centred on women who were paid up to £3 an hour less than male colleagues, despite being in the same pay grade.

In October last year, many schools were shut and home care services affected when workers took party in a 48-hour strike over the dispute.

Glasgow City Council later approved plans to finance the £548m equal pay settlement by selling off major venues to an arm’s-length body and leasing them back.

At the time, Ms Aitken said she was “delighted to have won backing for a deal that finally delivers pay justice for thousands of women in our workforce”.

The women affected will receive an average of £35,000 each.

Ms Aitken said the deals “not only mean that we can meet out responsibilities on equal pay - but do so while safeguarding the future of the city’s property assets in public use”.

Conor Doyle, business development director at Canada Life Investments, said the deal was a “great fit” for both his company and City Property.

He said: “It provides the borrower with competitive rates for the long-term while also retaining control of its assets and for us it is a high quality loan to an experienced property owner with the backing of the Council.

“It also provides further diversification to our growing loan book which is secured by quality assets across the UK and now, because of another recent financing in the Netherlands, in continental Europe as well.”

A further loan deal to cover the remaining cost of the equal pay settlement is expected to be announced later this year.

The full details of the deals - including their total cost to the taxpayer - are expected to be revealed once the last deal has been finalised.