Heathrow boss: I'd let my house be knocked down to build the third runway

Heathrow 
Thousands of homes will be demolished to build the third runway, and Heathrow's boss says the owners are getting a fair deal Credit: Frank Augstein/AP 

The boss of Heathrow has said he would not be worried if his own house were due to be bulldozed to make way for a third runway, arguing the compulsory purchase terms on offer are generous enough to provide security for the thousands in line to lose their homes.

John Holland-Kaye, the airport’s chief executive, told The Daily Telegraph he would be satified by the steps taken to underwrite the value of west London properties that have been blighted by the years of wrangling over expansion.

It plans to pay the “unblighted” market price plus 25pc, as well as legal and moving fees, including stamp duty.

Mr Holland-Kaye said he would be satisfied by the deal if his house was in the path of the new runway.

He said: “Yes I would actually. Everyone has a different situation. I haven’t lived in my house for as long as some of our neighbours have, and you can see that in the response.”

John Holland-Kaye
John Holland-Kaye said he would happily accept the payment if his house was in the way of Heathrow's new runway Credit: Luke MacGregor/Bloomberg

“What we try to do by having an offer like that is that it means that in this period of uncertainty when we’re still going through the planning consent, it has effectively underwritten the value of homes in the local marketplace.”

Anyone who needs to sell up and move out of the area can still find a buyer willing to pay full price, he argued, because they know the airport will buy the property when work finally gets underway.

“I’ve met with a number of our neighbours whose houses we are going to be buying and demolishing, their homes,” said Mr Holland-Kaye.

“For some of them, they wanted to know what the situation is and to move on, but for others this is where they put down their roots, had their children and it is much more difficult,” he said.

“We have to think about each one individually and do the right thing for them. Many of them have been our neighbours for many years, some of them have worked at the airport and we’ve got to make sure we look after them properly.”

Sadiq Khan 
High-profile campaigners including London Mayor Sadiq Khan have protested against the new runway Credit: Getty

The Government decided to back Heathrow’s expansion in the summer and MPs are expected to vote on the project by the end of this year.

A planning process will follow and Heathrow will have to act on complaints from interested parties, or explain why it has been unable to do so.

It hopes to have full approval to proceed by the end of 2020 and begin construction rapidly after that, completing the third runway in 2025.

The airport has also pledged to cut the number of late night flights and to encourage airlines to use less noisy planes in a bid to limit the impact on the other residents who are not losing their homes and so will be affected by the extra flights following the expansion.

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