Airport sale set to complete as losses soar by £millions
Gloucestershire Airport is on course to be sold by the end of January, but with losses soaring and debts rising will the two local authorities who own it have anything to show for it afterwards?
Dear readers,
Welcome to Thursday’s edition of The Raikes Journal CIC. Today we revisit the saga that is the sale Gloucestershire Airport - just days from the change of ownership.
Why does it matter?
It matters not just because people are passionate about aviation, and they have strong opinions on whether the land - one of the last bits of green space between Gloucester and Cheltenham - should be developed or not.
And then there are the numerous successful companies on the site’s two business parks that depend on its airport status. We know investment has already been frozen by some businesses and exit strategies investigated.
The airport is also a public asset. Despite that, we still don’t really know exactly how much the sale is for. Only time will tell how watertight the assurances are from the two local authorities that currently own it that it will remain a working airport.
Accompanying the saga has been speculation that if it were sold for development instead the land at Staverton could be worth more than 10 times the current asking price - a figure that would solve the financial challenges facing both local authorities.
Before Christmas Gloucester City Council revealed out of the blue that it was effectively bankrupt and had asked central government for up to £17.5m to help.
This is also a county that is looking to attract significant investment going forward, for projects such as the Golden Valley Development, which is also in the hands of Cheltenham Borough Council.
Enjoy.
Best regards,
Andrew Merrell (editor).
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Airport sale set to complete as losses soar by £millions
Gloucestershire Airport is on course to be sold by the end of January, but with losses soaring and debts rising will the two local authorities who own it have anything to show for it afterwards?
By Andrew Merrell.
The controversial sale of Gloucestershire Airport is on track to complete in the next few days, but with with losses soaring and debts rising will the public purse benefit at all from the £25 million-plus sell-off?
Raikes understands the 375-acre site will be in new ownership by January 31 (2026), just over a year from when the current custodians, Cheltenham Borough Council and Gloucester City Council, put it up for sale.
It is no secret that the airport - an arms-length company set up by the two local authorities to try to try to remove the airport from local politics - is loss-making, but Raikes can reveal its just-published accounts show those losses soared in the 12 months of its last financial year.
So much so that along with existing debt the total appears to threaten to wipe out much of the revenue that would be generated from the sale (assuming that debt is not already factored into the sale price).
Directors’ remuneration also rose significantly for the period too - as did staff numbers.
