Gloucestershire Airport could go up for sale again - or it might not
Businesses at Gloucestershire Airport hoping for some certainty after months of speculation about the site's sale won't like the mixed messages currently coming from the two local authority owners.
After months of speculation about its future, Gloucestershire Airport could go back on the market again - but then again it might not, writes Carmelo Garcia.
The planned sale of the 375-acre Staverton airport, which is jointly owned by Gloucester City Council and Cheltenham Borough Council, fell through earlier this year after months of negotiations and controversy.
The site was being sold for more than its asking price of £25m to Anglo-Indian business Horizon Aero Group.
But it fell through after Horizon Aero Group said it was unable to secure the necessary funding when a financial partner withdrew from the deal.
Emotions and controversy around the sale ran high from the off - initially with Councillor Jeremy Hilton (Lib Dem), the leader of the city council appearing to question the decision to sell, made by the previous Conservative leadership team.
And all through the process businesses on the airport protested loudly that they were being kept in the dark about the deal - a deal on which their livelihoods depended - with some nervous enough to stop significant investing.
The motives of Horizon Aero Group were also questioned, with some claiming the business was interested not in running the airport, but the potential real value of the land which some argue is as high as £300 million to £400m, if sold for housing
The councils insisted they were working closely with businesses and any deal would protect the site as an operational airport. Businesses failed to be reassured.
In the meantime, it emerged that Gloucestershire Airport Ltd has continued to be bailed out by the two local authorities. It is currently costing tax payers an estimated £2.7m a year.
It owes so much money that unless the debt (which Raikes understands is close to £20m) is written off much of the asking price will be soaked up balancing out the finances.
According to the councils work is underway to reduce the airport’s operating costs, but they have released no detail on how that is being done.
It now looks like the airport may go back on the market, but the difference of opinion that threatened to stall the process at the start is also back, it seems, with the leader of Cheltenham Borough Council saying one thing and the leader of Gloucester City Council another.
Cheltenham Borough Council’s leader Rowena Hay (pictured above) sees the airport as one of the biggest challenges her authority faces and putting the site back on the market is her preferred option.
“I’m still very firmly of the view that we need to sell,” she told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
Work is ongoing and the councils “are going to continue with selling it”, she said.
Sounding less definite, however, is city council’s leader Jeremy Hilton (pictured below).
While Hilton did not rule out a potential future sale but said no decision has yet been made between the two shareholders.
“We are discussing options at the moment,” he said. “We will get round to that but we haven’t actually firmed any decision yet between the two shareholders.
“That’s my position at the moment until we make a decision, that’s it. I’m assessing the various details.
“I’m not ruling anything out at the moment. I have my personal preferences, but I’m not going to declare those at the moment.
“But we’ve been making [progress]. We’ve appointed a new interim managing director, which I think is a positive move as well.
“We’re looking at various business options to reduce the operating deficit.”
The airport was built in 1936 and originally named Staverton Airport, replacing its predecessor at Down Hatherley Airfield.
The two councils created Gloucestershire Airport Limited in 1993 to run the site, which today is the UK’s busiest general aviation airport.
It ranked top in the Civil Aviation Authority’s airports for aircraft movements in 2023.
Gloucestershire Airport has its own fire station and two business parks which span a combined 700,000 square feet.
Numerous high-profile aviation-related firms, such as Safran Group, Babcock and Weston Aviation, are based at or near the airport.
*The Raikes Journal is the only independent news outlet in Gloucestershire approved to use the copy of the BBC local government reporting service. Why? Only independent, credible journalistically-led platforms that meet the BBC’s high standards win that permission.
By Carmelo Garcia, local democracy reporter for Gloucestershire. carmelo.garcia@reachplc.com
*The Raikes Journal is the only independent news outlet in Gloucestershire approved to use the copy of the BBC local government reporting service. Why? Only independent, credible journalistically-led platforms that meet the BBC’s high standards win that permission.