BAA has abandoned plans to building a second runway at Stansted Airport after its chief executive committed the company to selling 280 homes it owns in the area, the FT reports. The properties were purchased after 2003, when a government white paper proposed an additional runway at Stansted. They sit either where the runway would have been laid or in areas where noise from the expanded airport would have been unbearable.
The Government's decision to block new runways at Heathrow, Stansted and Gatwick means a runway is unlikely to be built in the foreseeable future. A letter confirming the house sales was sent last month by Colin Matthews, BAA’s chief executive, and made public yesterday, the newspaper reports. The letter confirmed that the properties would be sold ‘in a sensitive manner over an extended period’.
Source http://www.uk-airport-news.info/stansted-airport-news-010212.html