Exclusive:Doncaster Sheffield Airport: Reform could back £57m reopening loan if controversial lease clauses are changed

It had appeared that Reform was set to pull the plug on Doncaster Sheffield Airport reopening, after reporting by this paper uncovered the original lease deal between City of Doncaster Council (CDC) and former operators Peel Group.

This revealed a series of controversial clauses councillors and the public had previously been unaware of, including giving up 20 per cent of the airport’s turnover above the annual base rent payments to Peel.

Reform councillors, the biggest group on CDC, called for an extraordinary council meeting with a motion to revoke a £57m loan agreed by members in November, which was to be used to frontload the project’s funding.

This is set to be voted on by councillors on Monday, with Doncaster’s elected Labour Mayor Ros Jones claiming that if the loan is rescinded it would “kill” the airport reopening project.

Reform group leader Coun Craig Ward has said his party “supports the reopening of DSA”, however he claimed the borrowing was approved “without full material facts” about the lease.

Of particular concern was the “turnover rent” clause, which includes 20 per cent of taxpayer-funded grants from local and national government.

The original lease also had ambitious passenger targets of one million by 2031 and 2.3m by 2036, which if missed would allow Peel to trigger a break clause.

Reform Doncaster deputy leader Coun Jason Charity has now told The Yorkshire Post that if these clauses can be resolved, then his party may no longer revoke the £57m loan.

He said: “We genuinely do want DSA to succeed but we have always said that depends on the deal.

“We’re trying to reach a position where some of the stuff is potentially coming out of the lease on negotiation, that makes the lease much more viable.

“There’s a lot of what I consider to be business rigor around the deal.

“If we can land on something then there could be an amendment, and that would prevent the loan from being rescinded. It is very back and forth, it’s definitely very fluid.

“We continue to be in active discussions with the council. We maintain the view that we are pro DSA, we want it to work, but we’ve got to tune the deal to make sure it’s a viable business proposition.”

Coun Charity described the passenger numbers and the turnover rent clause as the “big ticket items” that need to be resolved, but said there were “additional conditions” Reform was looking to put in place.

It appears that the former is on its way to being amended, as City of Doncaster Council’s (CDC) pre-meeting report revealed that the 2031 passenger target break clause will be scrapped and the 2036 target is going to be reduced to one million.

However, the same document revealed that the turnover rent clause “has been a heavily debated point” in the lease negotiations.

These are being led by South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (Symca), as Mayor Oliver Coppard has said he will not release £160m of devolved funding to Doncaster - which is set to finance the project - until they have been completed.

Ahead of the vote, CDC said: “At the point of report drafting, these commercial discussions are progressing in a positive and constructive manner with Symca and the landowner.”

The report also said the lease negotiation “is currently on hold due to the current financial uncertainties, including the turnover considerations”.

Coun Charity said Reform UK wanted to ensure there were not any other “extraction mechanism” clauses in the lease.