Will the public have to pay nearly £20m to save Gloucestershire Airport?

The collapse of Gloucestershire Airport's deal leaves businesses in uncertainty; critics say £100,000s has gone to consultants and the debt level is now too great for any sale to get off the ground.

Mar 20, 2026

Dear readers,

Diary Dates…

Friday:

🤣 Comedians Rosie Jones and Charlie Baker are set to play The Sub Rooms, Stroud. Doors open at 6.30pm. More here.

Saturday:

🏉 Gloucester Rugby play Harlequins at Twickenham in round 11 of the Gallagher Prem. KO 3pm.

⚽ Gloucester City FC play Uxbridge FC at home at 3pm.

⚽ Cheltenham Town FC play Notts County FC away at 3pm.

⚽ Forest Green Rovers FC play Wealdstone FC at home at 3pm.

Sunday:

🤣 Comedian Jason Manford performs at the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham. More here.

🎻🎶 English Symphony Orchestra: Spring Equinox – A live concert at Cheltenham Town Hall. 3pm. More here.

Future thinking… more diary dates

🏇 Willans LLP solicitors and Cheltenham Open Door, the Cheltenham-headquartered law firm’s nominated charity for the year, invite you to join them for an evening of fun, fundraising and friendly competition. The entry fee, which all goes to the charity, puts you and a team in with a chance of winning one or more of six recorded races. Price includes two drinks and pizza. The date has been moved from the end of February to 23 April. At The Bottle of Sauce, Cheltenham, from 6pm. More here.

Briefing notes…

🏉💷 Arch West Country rivals to Gloucester Rugby, yes, that team from Bath, has released news that will get many teams thinking. Billionaire Sir James Dyson has announced he will “commit substantial new capital” to the club to help reduce its debt and support development of a new stadium. Apparently the deal “establishes a long-term 50:50 partnership between Sir James Dyson and Bruce Craig. The latter will continue to run Bath Rugby and lead the club’s next phase of development on and off the field.” Sir James, a supporter of Bath Rugby for more than 45 years, said the partnership was deeply personal.

🧑🏼‍💻 Gloucestershire-based technology and managed service provider (MSP) Emerge Digital has announced its B Corp Certification. It marks a period of strategic growth for the business following its recent expansion into South Wales and the appointment of business development director, former professional rugby player Alex Cuthbert. Last month the company also revealed a new three-year deal as part of its technology partnership with premiership team, Gloucester Rugby. The business now employs 24 staff, turnover has grown 15 per cent year-on-year and the number of supported users increased by 30 per cent over the last 12 months. More here.

The hugely successful Gloucestershire entrepreneur you’ve probably never heard of

An event in the Cotswolds this weekend has a rather special entrepreneur on the bill - a man who’s built and sold businesses for millions. He’s still at it - and he lives right here in Gloucestershire.

A former barrister and divorce lawyer who became a serial entrepreneur, founding and selling several multi-million pound businesses, is the headline name at Gloucestershire’s newest festival.

Rohan Blacker will be interviewed live on stage at the town’s Corn Hall by property PR consultant Jen Monk at this weekend’s Cotswold Homes and Interiors Festival in Cirencester on Saturday and Sunday.

Blacker’s CV includes being founder of Sofa.com, Pooky Lighting and his latest venture, Schplendid sofas, but the event also sees another fellow-Cotswold resident preening himself in readiness and - as is his forté - bound to draw plenty of attention.

That man is interior designer and television personality Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen, who is also on the bill - as are numerous local businesses in the homes and interior sector.

Blacker’s business career started when he quit the bar to found food delivery company Deliverance, a forerunner of Deliveroo, before selling it and going on to set up the London Soup Company and a restaurant called The Pen.

Deliverance sold for £5.5 million, before he and his business partner, Pat Reeves, turned their attention to the market for sofas, seeing an opportunity as the internet began to establish itself as a new marketplace.

That venture was Sofa.com, with Blacker and Reeves setting up the website and first showroom in 2006 and going on to sell £2m of sofas in that first year.

In 2015 they sold the business to private equity firm CBPE Capital for £50 million, with Blacker remaining a non-executive director.

Lighting business Pooky appeared in 2014. The business has a warehouse in Cheltenham and a showroom in Gloucester and in May 2024 had a turnover of £31.3 million with net assets of £14.5 million.

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Will the public have to pay nearly £20m to save Gloucestershire Airport?

The collapse of Gloucestershire Airport’s deal leaves businesses in uncertainty, critics say £100,000s has gone to consultants, and the debt level is now too great for any sale to get off the ground.

(Gloucestershire Airport from above: Picture courtesy of Andy Clarke, The Phobic Flyer)

Attempts to clarify the situation with Gloucestershire Airport following the collapsed sale of the 375-acre site last week have only added to the uncertainly and confusion - and left an even bigger question mark over its future.

Councillors have begun rounding on the leaders of Gloucester City Council - which together with Cheltenham Borough co-own the airport - calling for answers, not least about how much has been spent so far on consultancy fees.

One of them suggesting that spend is as much as £200,000.

Gloucestershire accountants Hazlewoods and lawyers BPE are believed to have been involved in advising the councils.

When Horizon backed out of the deal last week - after eight months of ‘due diligence’ by all parties, it released a statement to The Raikes Journal explaining the stumbling block had been money - with its backers no longer feeling the UK was a good place for them to invest.

Raikes has since seen a stinging email from Kerry Evans, technical director at aviation maintenance specialists RGV Aviation, one of the businesses based at the airport, to the leaders of the local authorities demanding they do better and reminding them they have a duty to the businesses on the site to communicate what on earth was going on.

Whether it is this that prompted the statement from city council leader Jeremy Hilton, or the social media comments calling the situation “a farce” is unclear, but Hilton’s words don’t seem to have created the desired sense of certainty around the site or its future.

Hilton directly challenged the Horizon’s claim that it had pulled out because of money, and said the priority now was to keep the airport operational and to deal with the mounting debt.

We have previously reported that debt level to be at least £12m, but one insider told Raikes they believed it was now in the region of £19 million, questioning whether that actually made Gloucestershire Airport Ltd insolvent.

We did ask the local authorities if that was true. They ignored the question, neither confirming nor denying the figure.

Evans said: “Following last Thursday’s confirmation that the sale has fallen through, I am writing to request immediate clarity on the next steps. While disappointing, this outcome was foreseen, and it must now be addressed with urgency and transparency.

“The prolonged lack of communication over recent months and years is no longer acceptable. The previous justification of ‘due diligence’ can no longer be relied upon, and there is now a clear responsibility to provide stakeholders with a definitive update.

“There remains significant uncertainty among the workforce, with no communication issued regarding the ‘Plan B’ referenced by Andrew Hearne (head of place at the city council).

“This is creating avoidable concern and instability. I require a clear explanation of what happens next, specifically whether the asset will be returned to market, and the timeline for doing so.”

In reply, one of the councillors cc’d into Evans’ email said: “I have had nothing but support from airport staff, but total silence from Cheltenham and Gloucester councils.

“This has led to speculation amongst residents and, more importantly, lack of security for the businesses on the site which is essential especially at this time with the position of the developing SLP (Strategic Local Plan).

“I hope some future plans/next steps will be available soon and we won’t be subjected to learning everything from social media as has been the case throughout this process.”

Hilton’s statement from earlier this week said: “Our focus is on keeping Gloucestershire Airport operating and supporting the aviation businesses that depend on it.

“I want to be clear that the proposed sale did not proceed because Horizon Aero Group was unable to secure the required funding and not because of any change in our position.”

But after this statement was published, we had this week’s meeting of Gloucester City Council.

Labour group leader Terry Pullen (Moreland) asked why it had taken so long to discover why the buyer was unable to raise the capital needed for the deal, and why the due diligence was not carried out effectively in the first place.

“There are also big questions to be asked about how much the council has spent and wasted on consultants, agents and legal fees,” he said.

“The airport is making a significant annual loss and council tax payers continue to bail it out, although there are no clear proposals about how this will happen.

“Surely the council should have taken these steps years ago and avoided the financial crisis the airport is now in.”

Conservative group leader Stephanie Chambers (Conservative, Quedgeley Fieldcourt) said she will be calling for the full timeline and total cost of the failed sale process, which she believed to be in excess of £200,000.

A source close to the airport told Raikes: “The legal aspects of the transaction were always going to be incredibly difficult.

“There are unwritten agricultural tenancies dating back to wartime requisition and pieces of the infrastructure of the same vintage (sewage farm, electricity substations etc.) that will be challenging to square away in a 21st century transaction.

“The airport company’s position is now precarious. It owes its shareholders £19m in defaulted loans which, I assume, means it is, technically, insolvent.

“If it were to fold, the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority) licence would fall away and those legal issues would be all the more complex to resolve.

“I don’t think the shareholders will let the company fold; it would be a political disaster, but they might be forced to take a lower bid.

“It still has potential, but it’s never going to set the world on fire in terms of profitability.

“The wider economic contribution is, unfortunately, unseen. Skyborne, for example, has over 150 students training, all spending £110,000 each and living in Cheltenham.

“It employs about 100 staff too, the majority of whom spend their salaries in the county. It’s churning out around 20 pilots a month who are flying for BA, easyJet, TUI etc.

“That turnover alone virtually cancels out the debt. The councils should write it off as an investment and take a percentage of rental and profits while allowing someone who knows what the hell they’re doing to run it.

“As a public asset, the councils legally have to get ‘best consideration’, so they might not have the flexibility.”

Hilton’s statement included these lines on behalf of the local authority itself: “A number of potential options are already being explored by both councils, and this work will continue over the coming months.

“There is not expected to be any immediate impact on the day-to-day operation of the airport or on businesses currently operating from the site while this work progresses.”

He told councillors directly at this week’s meeting: “We will take the time needed to properly consider the best way forward, remain calm and measured in our approach, and keep all realistic options under review to achieve the best possible outcome.”

Raikes did ask the city and borough councils if the airport had been withdrawn from the market, if either local authority had been in touch any of other potential buyers, whether they still intended to sell the airport at all, whether the losses really were in the region of £19m and whether they had been in touch with any businesses on the site.

The borough council replied with this statement. Gloucester City Council did not respond.

Councillor Rowena Hay, leader at Cheltenham Borough Council said: ‘’We are clearly disappointed that we were unable to close the deal on the sale of the airport and what matters now, is that we focus on discussions with staff, operators, tenants and key stakeholders about next steps.

“Meaningful engagement with those directly connected with the site is our first priority. We will then be in the best possible position to review all options, with the aim of securing a positive outcome for Gloucestershire Airport.’’

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