Residents from Summerhouse Lane in Harmondsworth have taken a petition to Downing Street calling for a clear decision on whether their homes could be required for Heathrow’s proposed third runway, and a fair route to move if they are. The Residents of Summerhouse Lane group submitted the petition on 29 September, asking ministers to end what they describe as prolonged uncertainty for households in the village.
The appeal is not simply a demand to stop airport expansion. Some local residents support the runway but say they still need to know what will happen to their properties. They want the Government to say plainly whether particular homes are needed, explain what compensation would be available and allow families to plan their next steps. Support for a national infrastructure project, the group argues, does not remove the immediate difficulty of living without a reliable answer about one’s home.
That uncertainty has practical consequences. A property affected by a major proposed development may be harder to sell at its ordinary market value. Residents who cannot make a confident decision about staying or moving may find it difficult to plan family life and finances. The petition’s central request is therefore for certainty and a workable route forward, rather than a new technical argument about the runway’s design.
What the current rules provide
There is already a statutory blight process for some properties affected by the airport expansion boundary. It is not an automatic offer to buy every home in Harmondsworth. Eligibility depends on factors including whether a property is within the relevant boundary, whether its owner meets the qualifying conditions, and whether reasonable efforts to sell have failed because the property could only be sold for substantially less than its unaffected market value. A valid claim may require a purchase at fair market value, with qualifying loss and moving-related payments.
Separate airport property schemes also exist. Depending on where a home is and an owner’s circumstances, hardship arrangements may be available. An enhanced offer for eligible owner-occupiers is conditional on development consent being granted and the airport confirming it intends to proceed. These rules set out possible routes for qualifying owners; they do not, by themselves, resolve which individual homes will ultimately be needed or when residents should expect a final answer. That distinction lies at the heart of the petition.
The runway remains part of a planning process rather than an approved construction project. The national policy statement designated in 2018 provides the existing framework, while ministers have consulted on proposed amendments. That consultation closed on 1 September. The draft policy does not itself grant development consent to a specific scheme, and any eventual application would still have to go through a separate statutory examination and decision.
What happens next
The Government’s published timetable envisages consideration of consultation responses and parliamentary scrutiny before a final policy decision. Ministers have set an ambition to designate an updated Heathrow expansion policy by the end of 2026. If that happens, detailed proposals would then be developed and consulted on locally before an application for development consent, which is anticipated by the end of 2027. A decision on any application is currently expected in the first half of 2029. These are planning milestones, not a guarantee that each step will happen on schedule or that consent will be granted.
For Summerhouse Lane residents, those national milestones do not answer the immediate household question: will a particular home be required, and what options will its owner have? The petition asks ministers to make the process more definite and fair for people whose lives are affected while policy and planning decisions remain outstanding. No decision on individual properties was announced with the petition’s submission.
The submission puts a specific local experience before the Government as the next stages of the runway process approach. Its supporters say residents should not have to wait in uncertainty without a clear explanation of the likely impact on their homes, the compensation routes available to them, and the steps they can take to move on.
