South Yorkshire Chambers Respond To Chancellor's Pledge to Support Doncaster Sheffield Airport

30th January 2025

Reacting to the Chancellor’s recent pledge to support the development of Doncaster Sheffield Airport (DSA), as that key asset looks to reopen by Spring 2026.

The three South Yorkshire Chambers have issued a cautiously optimistic statement, whilst also emphasising the need for warm words to translate into tangible action.

During a major speech today — announcing various measures intended to boost economic growth throughout the entirety of the UK — Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rachel Reeves MP, has announced that Government will be working closely with politicians here in South Yorkshire, to support our region’s ambitions for its soon-to-be-rebooted international airport.  

Responding to the news, the Chief Execs for the three South Yorkshire Chambers (those being the respective networks for Doncaster, Sheffield and Barnsley & Rotherham) jointly commented:

“We, of course, welcome Government’s support for the airport and by extension South Yorkshire. Only a few days ago, our umbrella body, the British Chambers of Commerce, drew up a list of important infrastructure projects to try and get them on the Chancellor’s radar; believing that, if these are properly invested in, they will help get the UK’s economy moving in the right direction again. Many different opportunities for growth were highlighted here, so it’s encouraging to see that, even amidst all of that, the need to support DSA still stood out as a priority.  

“The Chancellor may have caused an unnecessary amount of pain and consternation for businesses with her Autumn Budget, but this — along with all of the other announcements from today’s speech — signals that there might be some mid-term gains on the horizon for the economy.

“That being said, many will understandably want to wait and see if Westminster can actually deliver on these warm words, given that we have been here before. Indeed, we heard similar pledges from some of the Chancellor’s predecessors in Government — including from previous Secretaries of State and even a former Prime Minister — only for the promised support to never materialise.

“We hope that this time around will be different, and that central Government will be able to match the extraordinary entrepreneurialism that our public sector partners in the local and mayoral combined authorities have demonstrated throughout this hard-fought campaign.”