One thing that can be said about Luton Rising (the new name for the owners of London Luton Airport), is that its Spin Doctors love one liners. Councillor Javeria Hussain is the Chair of Luton Rising. When Councillor Hussain recently visited the airport, a photo of the event was captioned:
“Great to be collaborating, partnership work is so important to us”
What Luton Rising fails to mention was that the airport operator refused to pay any income to Luton Rising claiming force majeure from March 2019. As Luton Rising conducts its meetings in secrecy we don’t know if this has yet ended.
What we do know is that the airport operator has been given a free 1 year extension to its lease and that Luton Rising has agreed to the airport operator keeping payments totalling £45m over the next 3 years. Money that could have been spent on Council services.
While the Council is being bailed out by the government, the airport operator’s two international shareholders have a net worth of £1.4bn.
No wonder the photo shows Cllr Hussain not smiling, as Javeria has very little to smile about with the state of Luton Rising finances and its huge debt mountain.