Background to the report

St Helena, together with Ascension Island and the archipelago of Tristan da Cunha, form one of the UK’s 14 overseas territories. St Helena is self-governing and autonomous as set out in its constitution. The UK government’s long-standing policy is to meet the reasonable assistance needs of the UK’s overseas territories, where financial self-sufficiency is not possible.

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The Foreign, Commonwealth, Development Office (FCDO) provides financial and technical assistance to four of the UK’s overseas territories that are eligible for overseas development assistance, which includes St Helena. FCDO’s long-term aim is to help those territories achieve sustainable growth and financial independence from the UK.

In 2011, FCDO entered into a £285.5 million contract with a South African company, Basil Read, to design and construct an airport and associated infrastructure, including a replacement fuel depot (the bulk fuel installation), on St Helena, and then operate it for the first 10 years. The construction of the airport was completed in 2016 and, after a delay while the impact of difficult wind conditions on landing aircraft safely was assessed, it opened to commercial flights in October 2017.

The annual amount of aid the St Helena Government receives from the UK government is based on FCDO’s assessment of “reasonable assistance needs”. The St Helena Government received £37.8 million in aid from the UK government in 2023-24. In its business case for the airport, FCDO expected that the airport would significantly increase tourism to St Helena, increasing the island’s self-generated income so that St Helena would eventually become more financially self-sufficient and no longer require financial aid from the UK government by 2043.

Scope of the report

This report is an update to our 2016 report Realising the benefits of the St Helena Airport project. We undertook this work following concerns raised by Parliament about the functionality of St Helena Airport and associated infrastructure. This factual report sets out progress against the aims set out in the airport business case since our last report. The scope of this report is as follows.

  • The key developments to the airport and associated infrastructure since 2016.
  • The benefits realised since the airport became operational.
  • Current and future arrangements in place to continue to manage the airport and associated infrastructure on St Helena.

The focus of this report is on FCDO and what it is doing to support the St Helena Government to realise the benefits of the airport and become more economically self-sufficient. While we comment on other initiatives on St Helena that are relevant to FCDO’s objectives, our report examines the role of FCDO, and we are not auditing the St Helena Government. Our report is factual, and we have not sought to conclude on value for money.

Conclusions

The airport is operational and is functioning as well as it can within the constraints on its operations. However, the airport alone has not yet enabled the growth of tourists and income from tourism envisaged in the original airport business case or the anticipated reduction in aid provided to the island by the UK government.

Some of the associated infrastructure is yet to be completed nine years after the original planned date, having already cost twice as much as anticipated

FCDO is committed to supporting the St Helena Government to become less dependent on aid from the UK government over time, without setting a target date for self-sufficiency, and it still regards increasing tourism as the main way to achieve this.

The COVID-19 pandemic was a considerable setback to progress against the aims of the airport’s business case and the St Helena Government faces challenges to increasing economic growth, including continued depopulation and the associated reduction in its skills base.

Ownership of these challenges rests with the St Helena Government, but FCDO has a critical role in supporting the St Helena Government in a range of ways, including funding capital projects and technical support. However, it is not clear to what extent FCDO and the St Helena Government are still aiming to achieve everything that was set out in the business case from the investment in the airport.

FCDO needs to work with the St Helena Government to set out projections for tourist numbers and tourism income, and understand how it can support a strategy for achieving these, beyond the Tourism Recovery Strategy, which ended in December 2024.

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Press release

View press release (12 Feb 2025)

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