The Rt Hon Alistair Darling MP

[Address line 1]

[Address line 2]

20 November 2004

Department for Transport

Great Minster House
76 Marsham Street
LONDON SW1P 4DR

Dear Secretary of State

My home, which is very near to Stansted Airport, has been severely blighted as a consequence of your decision to encourage BAA to build a second runway at Stansted. Homes right across the local area are similarly blighted because potential purchasers are nervous about what will happen to this area if we have an airport bigger than Heathrow in our midst. It may well be that such expansion never materialises but this is little consolation to those who are currently in the position of trying to sell their homes and finding that no-one wants to buy other than at a very heavily discounted price.

Villages which were once described as 'highly desirable' by local estate agents are now awash with 'For Sale' signs that have been erected more in hope than in expectation. Where there is no choice but to sell (for example where the home-owner is forced to move because of a new job or new family circumstances) the property must be sold at whatever price can be obtained. This is often less than the price that would have been obtained two or three years ago.

The Air Transport White Paper stated that BAA would need to introduce a scheme to protect local homeowners from generalised blight arising from the Stansted expansion proposals. BAA claims that its proposed 'Home Owner's Support Scheme' (HOSS) fulfils that obligation but this is patently not the case. The BAA scheme addresses only the issue of specific noise blight and, even then, by using a woefully inadequate 66 decibel noise contour, it excludes the vast majority of properties that have been blighted. The evidence from the official Land Registry house price statistics and elsewhere suggests that about 12,000 properties have been blighted but only some 500 home-owners are eligible for the HOSS. The projected 66 decibel contour would exclude homes that are only 400 yards from the site of the proposed second runway.

In 1992 we were assessed for land compensation. Our representatives agreed with BAA an area within which properties were devalued. This was certainly not tied to noise contours and considered all matters leading to devaluation. If the Government is interested in seeing fair treatment for local people then it should require BAA to establish an arrangement of this type.

As a matter of interest we understand that no further land compensation will become payable until 2010 since the facilities for 15 mppa will not be completed until 2009. Our properties are currently devalued by the volume of aircraft arising from the 20 mppa worth of aircraft generated by these incomplete facilities!

I would be interested in your comments on the points I have made above, and interested also to hear from Mike Clasper, the Chief Executive of BAA plc to whom I am copying this letter.

Yours sincerely

[NAME]

cc: Sir Alan Haselhurst MP