Engagement locally

Understanding stakeholder views is essential in informing our decisions and shaping our policies. Within these web pages you will find information on who our stakeholders are, how we engage with them and what our stakeholders tell us.

Our stakeholders
Stakeholders are people and organisations who are affected by or can affect a company's business. At Heathrow this includes employees, customers, local communities, pressure groups, suppliers, regulators and local, regional and national government. These people all take a close interest in our airport operations and can shape the way the business develops.

We want to run and expand our airport with the trust and support of our stakeholders. These different groups do not always have the same views and it is therefore important that we keep them informed of our plans and respond to their concerns.

How we engage 
We communicate with our stakeholders throughout the year, both formally through consultations, research, regular briefings and newsletters and informally as part of day-to-day business.

Heathrow Airport Consulatative Committee
The largest consultation forum is the Heathrow Airport Consultative Committee (HACC) which meets every two months. This is independently chaired and represents local authorities, the aviation and travel industry, pressure groups, trades unions and DfT. It has various sub-committees, which look in detail at various aspects of the airport’s work. More information can be found at www.hacc.org.uk

Local Focus Forum
The Local Focus Forum represents residents’ associations and councillors closest to the airport. We share with them information about pending developments, operational impacts that might have an impact on the local area, and progress of Terminal 5. Information about the Local Focus Forum can be found at www.baa.com/T5community

Heathrow Inform Newsletter
Our quarterly Heathrow Inform newsletter was launched in 2006 and is sent to 17,000 homes in the local area. It covers a range of topics including airport operations, Heathrow’s future, education, community investment and employment opportunities. Through this newsletter we are able to help residents understand our airport and we can keep them up to date with all of the developments and activities which affect them.

Quarterly Business Update
This year we introduced a quarterly Business Update primarily aimed at airline business partners but which is also sent to other stakeholders including MPs, GLA members and local councillors.

Consultations
We engage with local stakeholders when considering developments at the airport, both large and small. This ranges from public meetings with individual communities on small scale planning applications or public consultations on our larger development proposals. We always keep local communities informed of our plans and give them the opportunity to express their views.

Heathrow East consultation
In 2006 we conducted an extensive consultation with key stakeholders about our propoal to build Heathrow East, a replacement for Terminals 1 and 2 at Heathrow. Over the six week consultation period, we contacted local residents, residents’ associations, focus groups, local authorities, officials and councillors, businesses, regional government, non-departmental public bodies, passengers and airport staff. In total over 20,000 people were contacted or sent information about our plans. We received 300 responses. These included 120 responses from local residents, 100 from passengers and 24 from political stakeholders, public bodies and agencies.

The consultation included:

• A fact sheet and DVD on Heathrow East terminal sent to approximately 19,000 local homes and businesses and 3,500 other stakeholders
• Five community exhibitions held at locations around the airport. The purpose of the exhibitions was to engage with residents face-to-face to explain the Heathrow East terminal development
• A dedicated website on Heathrow East terminal
• An integrated media information campaign to support the public consultation for Heathrow East terminal including advertorials in local newspapers and follow-up press release and briefings for local and national journalists.

Below is a summary of the responses we received:

A number of queries and comments were received on various issues including the environment, construction, passenger experience, security and capacity. We provided detailed responses to specific comments in a post consultation document. The majority of people who asked questions about the proposals were satisfied once they had received a response.

Independent stakeholder survey 
In September and October 2006, an external survey was conducted on behalf of BAA Heathrow with local residents around the airport. The results of the research help to inform our community relations programme. In total 1009 people were surveyed in three defined areas – within two miles of the airport; between two and five miles from the airport and between five to eight miles from the airport.

What we learned
People recognised the importance of Heathrow for generating local jobs and boosting the local economy. Over a third of those surveyed also recognised that Heathrow is convenient for leisure and business travel. But they also recognised that noise from aircraft and perceived pollution from aeroplanes were the main disadvantages of having Heathrow in the local area. This should be set against overall concerns for living in the area of which crime and road congestion were the top mentions.

How we are responding
We use the feedback from this research to decide which issues are significant for BAA Heathrow and to focus our corporate responsibility programme. This report describes how we are managing these environmental impacts.

²  People who responded independently to the consultation without giving an indication of whether they were a resident, political stakeholder etc.