Doncaster Sheffield Airport: Council 'suppressed and frustrated' private investment offer into airport

In the two-page letter sent to both Sir Keir Starmer and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves, the council were said to be “hindering re-opening timelines, job creation and economic growth the region and nation so desperately need”.

The consortium of global investors are led by the Spanish-based Labyrinth International Investments – whose CEO Chris Jordan penned the letter sent to the Prime Minister on November 11, 2025 – in partnership with Monaco-based Castlepines Global Equity

Mr Jordan wrote: “The level of proposed public borrowing, financial burden, risk and lack of transparency of available private investment now creates an untenable and inappropriate decision-making process due to take place at the meeting proposed to approve the Gainshare Funding on 27th November.”

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), Grant Freeman, a Doncaster-born businessman and UK strategic advisor to Labyrinth, said the offer presented to Doncaster Council by the consortium included around £500million worth of investment.

It includes £100m “upfront” to purchase Fly Doncaster Ltd, the arms-length company established by the council to run Doncaster Sheffield Airport (DSA). The consortium would then “re-gift” 10 per cent equity of the business back to the council.

Mr Freeman said the consortium also offered to cover the costs of two significant pressures on the reopening of the airport: a “critical lack” of power and grid capacity for the site; and a lack of rail infrastructure to and from the airport.

He told the LDRS both those pressures would require £200m of capital investment each to address, which the investment consortium said it would pay in its offer.

Mr Freeman said addressing the power and rail issues were critical to the success of the airport and allowing them to be secondary to reopening DSA would lead it to fail.

However, Mr Freeman, who still resides in Doncaster, said the offer has been on the table since June 2025 and the council failed to disclose its existence.

Doncaster Council did not respond to request for comment from the LDRS.

Previously, sources have instead suggested £57m of additional borrowing was the only option to reopen the airport – with no mention of the private investment offer – and if councillors rejected that borrowing at a council meeting on November 27, 2025, it would “kill” the reopening project.

The £160m in gainshare funding provided by the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority (SYMCA) is not a single lump sum, rather around £6m-per-year for 25-years.

Doncaster Council says it needs the borrowing as part of the public funding option as it needs more than £6m in the early years.

The letter by Mr Jordan to Sir Keir Starmer said: “We are concerned that the authorities have not given full sightedness of the formal private investor offer to both the public and to all counsellors being asked to make the biggest and longest lasting impact decision Doncaster has ever taken.

“The public desperately wants DSA to reopen, but not at any cost to future generations when private investment is ready to be agreed and is being suppressed.”

Councillors will meet on November 27 to potentially authorise the £57m in borrowing needed to reopen the airport.

Mr Freeman told the LDRS that the consortium’s offer would remove significant risk to the public purse if it was accepted, including a potential legal challenge by other airports over the public subsidy.

The letter to the PM said: “The use of public subsidy will have significant and real legal challenges. This will cause further delays and unbudgeted legal costs that will further damage public and inward investor confidence.”

The consortium also believes it could make profit from DSA within three years, rather than the nine-plus years projected by Doncaster Council.