Noise Insulation (Hansard, 6 February 1989)

§ Mr. Peter Bottomley

For people living near new motorways and other new public roads, there is provision for insulation against noise in the Noise Insulation Regulations 1975 and for compensation for injurious affection in the Land Compensation Act 1973. Offers of insulation or grant are made where dwellings receive or are expected to receive noise levels which meet the criteria set out in the regulations. Claims for compensation for nuisance caused by specified physical factors arising from the use of a road can be made against the highway authority one year after the new road is opened to traffic. These provisions do not assist those who live near older roads not covered by the legislation introduced in 1973 or who have moved near a motorway since it opened.

Details of the provisions and procedures for claims are set out in the land compensation series of booklets, in particular No. 2 entitled "Your Home and Nuisance from Public Development" and No. 5 "Insulation against Traffic Noise".

The Government have designated Heathrow and Gatwick for noise insulation grant purpose and has made, by statutory instrument, various noise insulation grants schemes. The most recent schemes for these airports which provided for grants to be paid by the then British Airports Authority effectively ended in March 1985. As promised in the 1985 airports policy White Paper, these schemes were reviewed. This suggested that small areas outside the scheme boundary at each airport should be included retrospectively. BAA plc have agreed to operate and fund extensions to the schemes which will be promulgated by statutory instrument shortly. We have no plans to introduce new schemes at these airports.

We are committed to introducing a scheme at Stansted when the airport reaches 2 million passengers per annum.

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We understand that BAA has introduced schemes at its non-designated airports and that several other airports also pay such grants.

The Land Compensation Act 1973 provides that if there has been depreciation in value of property as a result of change in the noise climate (or other physical factor) arising from major apron and runway alterations to an existing airport, or the coming into use of a new airport then the airport operator is liable to pay compensation equal to that depreciation in value to the property. The Act does not provide for the payment of compensation for loss of property value to owners of property around airports which may be progressively affected by the intensified use of an airport. Although no powers exist to require airport owners or operators to acquire properties suffering from severe noise-blight, BAA plc introduced voluntary schemes to do this at Heathrow and Gatwick. The schemes, with boundaries based on the 65 NNI (noise and number index) contours and ownership predating 17 October 1969, closed on 31 December 1988 though applications received before then are still being processed. Similar arrangements have been made for noise-blighted properties near airports owned by local authorities.