Heathrow’s expansion plan landed on Clean Air Day. It says your quiet hours will shrink

The government chose Clean Air Day to release its planning framework for Heathrow’s third runway. Buried inside is a sentence that matters for every Putney resident: shorter time windows without planes overhead.

The framework, published yesterday as the Draft Heathrow Expansion National Policy Statement (HENPS), is now open for public consultation until 11:59pm on Tuesday 1 September. That deadline falls as schools return from the summer holidays.

What the document admits

The government’s headline claim is that overall aircraft noise can be held to 2024 levels despite a significant increase in flights. It also states however that “the underlying nature of impacts would change” and that “while some areas would experience lower levels of noise, others would experience increases.” Some communities will face more aircraft noise than today, even under the government’s best-case scenario.

No one can yet say which communities those are, because the flight paths have not been drawn. The noise analysis in the HENPS is based on indicative routes only. Whereas the actual airspace design, which will determine whether Putney ends up on the louder or quieter side of the redistribution, will be produced by the UK Airspace Design Service after the expansion plan has been finalised. You could be forgiven for thinking the timing was deliberate.

The reality is that areas in the south of Putney that currently do not have to deal with much aircraft noise like Southfields, West Hill and Roehampton are likely to experience much higher noise levels, comparable to those parts of Putney closer to the Thames, as the number of aircraft increase by more than 50% under the plan – over 700 additional planes a day.

Residents are being asked to endorse the framework before anyone can tell them which side of the route/noise calculation they are on. As we reported in November 2025, this was precisely the accountability gap in the earlier parliamentary process.

Putney will get more overhead traffic and hence more noise because planes will always be landing on Heathrow’s runways East>West due to the massive increase in numbers. Currently, landing is occasionally switched West>East.

The key sentence in the document is paragraph 5.46. Discussing the alternation scheme (the system of rotating which runway takes traffic, giving each community windows without planes overhead), the document states that plans for it “must” be submitted with any future planning application, and then adds: “(though the Government acknowledges that the duration of periods of respite that currently apply will be reduced).” The word “acknowledges” is doing specific work. The government is conceding the harm in the document it is asking Parliament to designate. What the document calls “respite” (the hours when planes are routed away from an area) will be shorter.

A new legal weight

There is a second element that most national coverage has missed or downplayed. The HENPS designates Heathrow expansion as Critical National Growth Infrastructure, a new legal status that pre-weights the planning scales before any application is made.

The document states that “a policy presumption in favour of CNGI will apply” and that “it is unlikely that residual impacts will outweigh the need for CNGI.” In plain terms: it is as if a referee has ruled before kickoff that one team’s goals count double. When communities eventually appear before the Planning Inspectorate to argue that noise damage to their area outweighs the national benefit, the HENPS has already answered that question.

A further change sits in a single paragraph near the back of the document. The Planning and Infrastructure Act 2025 removed the legal right communities previously held to be consulted before a Heathrow planning application is submitted. What the document calls for instead (“high-quality early, meaningful and constructive engagement”) carries no statutory force.

After previous battles over expansion that the government has lost each time; it has decided to stick its thumb firmly on the scale.

The government’s case

Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander has described the government as “builders, not blockers, taking the steps needed to unlock billions in investment, boost growth, and create thousands of local jobs.” Chancellor Rachel Reeves has cited up to £42 billion in economic benefits and over 60,000 jobs. The government is targeting planning consent by 2029, with a planning application expected from Heathrow Airport Limited in 2027 or 2028.

Alexander’s ministerial foreword in the HENPS acknowledges that communities around Heathrow “have legitimate concerns about noise, air quality, surface access, disruption, land, compensation, health, and the local environment” and states that “those concerns must be taken seriously.”

What Wandsworth and Richmond have said

The leader of Richmond Council, Cllr Gareth Roberts, described the summer consultation window as raising “legitimate questions about whether communities will have a fair opportunity to scrutinise plans that could affect them for generations.” He added that the government and Heathrow “have still failed to demonstrate how expansion can meet their own tests on climate change, air quality, noise and economic benefit.”

Wandsworth Council issued no statement on the HENPS as of the time of publication. Nor has Putney MP Fleur Anderson.