Hundreds of homes on the flight path of Leeds Bradford Airport could receive up to £5,500 each to pay for noise insulation measures

Hundreds of homes across Leeds could receive up to £5,500 each to pay for noise insulation measures as airport bosses look to secure permission to change night-flying rules.

The cash could be used to pay for noise insulation measures such as double glazing and air conditioning as aviation bosses at Leeds Bradford Airport look to substantially expand operations.

Chief executive Vincent Hodder said the financial offer is the “most generous” of its kind and said around 750 properties home to about 1,700 people are anticipated to be initially eligible for the money; a figure which means LBA could potentially pay out up to £4.125m.

Properties qualify if they are affected by an average of more than 55 decibels of noise from passing aircraft at night - a figure equivalent to the sound of a running dishwasher or coffee machine. The numbers of affected homes will be reviewed every two years.

A map has been published by Leeds Bradford Airport showing locations due to be affected by flight noise. 750 properties expected to experience average decibel levels above 55db could qualify for grants of up to £5,500 for air conditioning, double glazing and loft insulation.

placeholder image — A map has been published by Leeds Bradford Airport showing locations due to be affected by flight noise. 750 properties expected to experience average decibel levels above 55db could qualify for grants of up to £5,500 for air conditioning, double glazing and loft insulation.

A map submitted with planning documents shows the affected properties are on the outskirts of Yeadon and Bramhope, stretching to parts on the outskirts of Guiseley and Horsforth.

It comes as LBA, which has been involved in years of planning wrangles over its night-time flight operations, seeks to increase usage from around 4.5m passengers a year to 7m a year by 2030. Planning documents suggest the number of flights could increase between now and 2030 by around 11 per cent.

A draft Section 106 agreement submitted alongside an LBA planning application to change a series of current rules governing flight operations said applications could be made to receive money towards the installation of bedroom air conditioning and double glazing, as well as loft insulation. But a maximum of £550,000 of spending – equivalent to 100 applications – will only be approved each year.

The wider application is seeking to change night-time flight restrictions from a current cap on numbers to a noise-related quota count as well as reducing the ‘night-time’ period by 90 minutes. This would entail the current 7am to 11am ‘daytime’ rule changing to 6am to 11.30pm.

LBA’s plans are expected to result in a ‘low’ increase in noise for the 750 properties, with a rise of between one and three decibels, while there is anticipated to be a ‘negligible’ rise of under one decibel for a further 111,600 nearby properties.

The offer has been described by LBA opponents as an effective “bribe” but Mr Hodder said it shows the airport has listened to the concerns of local residents and is “correcting a historical position”.

“It is the single most generous night noise insulation scheme of any airport anywhere in the UK, and it's being put in place to to mitigate the risk of health impacts caused by night noise from the airport for anybody who lives within what's called the ‘Significantly Observed Effect Level’,” he said,

“We will pay up to £5,500, not including VAT, to minimise the impact on them of the noise which is produced from the airport. That's despite the fact that we're not looking at an increase in noise.

“It's a recognition of the fact that we haven't had a noise insulation scheme since the 1990s, and so people are already being impacted by that noise. We've heard them, and so we're prepared to take on the financial implication of that.”

A spokesperson for the Group for Action on Leeds Bradford Airport (GALBA), which is opposing the wider proposal, said: “LBA has offered to pay ‘towards’ (not all of) the costs for 750 households – in the whole of Leeds and Bradford – and has made no offer to help with the costs of running the proposed air conditioning.

"Those 750 households would receive help at a rate of roughly 100 per year, which means that hundreds of households would be waiting years for any help, while the increased night flights would be permitted from summer 2027.

"LBA’s proposed eligibility for insulation is based on average noise exposure, rather than the frequency of aircraft noise events. The vast majority of local people experiencing nighttime noise from frequent flights over their homes would therefore receive no help on that basis.”