Land Interest Questionnaires - to complete or not to complete?

Since 29th January, Land Interest Questionnaires have been dropping on doormats across west London and the surrounding areas.  Heathrow Airport arranged a co-ordinated postal delivery to thousands of households.  Yet it remains unclear as to exactly which areas have received the letters.

Many residents have received these letters for the first time, unaware that Heathrow expansion may affect them. For those residents, it may seem compulsory to provide this information to Heathrow. Indeed, the letter implies that, should you not provide the necessary information, you will not be kept up to date with information regarding Heathrow’s expansion plans.

A large number of residents have now received multiple copies of these letters, you would think Heathrow would get the message by now!  People do not wish to divulge personal information to a foreign-owned, private company.

We will leave it to individual residents to decide whether to return the questionnaires or not, however, residents are under no obligation to provide the information requested.  

Don’t just take our word for it.  The following is taken from advice issued by the Planning Inspectorate to a resident, dated March 2019

”From the perspective of a person with an interest in the land, volunteering details about their interest(s) in land to a DCO applicant will help to ensure that their interest(s) are reflected accurately in any application, and ensure that their ability to engage in the examination of that application is not compromised.  Notwithstanding this, questionnaire recipients are not mandated to volunteer information about their interest(s) in land to a DCO applicant, if they do not wish to do so.  

Importantly choosing not to volunteer land interest information to a DCO applicant would have no implications for a person’s status and ability to take part in the examination of an application for a DCO, or for any future claims by a person for compensation under the Compulsory Purchase Act 1965; the Land Compensation Act 1973; and/ or s152 of the PA2008. The term ‘Book of Reference’ is defined in Regulation 7 of The Infrastructure Planning (Applications: Prescribed Forms and Procedure) Regulations 2009…“

The full Planning Inspectorate advice can be found here