Description
The Head of Economic Development leads Heathrow’s approach to generating inclusive economic growth across local communities, ensuring residents and local businesses benefit from both the airport’s current operations and future expansion. A core element of the role is leading Heathrow’s economic development activity within the Development Consent Order (DCO) for expansion, ensuring it meets policy and planning requirements and is fully integrated with wider business strategy. Working closely with the Consents, Communities, Forecasting, Employment and Skills, and Procurement teams, as well as economic consultants, the role oversees the development of the Economic Development Framework and Economic Development Strategy for expansion, ensuring these reflect local needs, stakeholder expectations, and Heathrow’s strategic objectives.
The role ensures that expansion delivers measurable socio‑economic benefits and strengthens Heathrow’s overall social value proposition. It leads engagement with local chambers of commerce and business groups, and works closely with the Communities team to build strong relationships with local authorities and other key stakeholders, ensuring a coordinated and place‑based approach to economic development.
Responsibilities
- Lead Heathrow’s Economic Development Strategy, ensuring alignment with Expansion and DCO requirements, the Airports National Policy Statement (ANPS), and wider business strategy, including ownership of the Economic Development Framework and Strategy within the DCO submission.
- Oversee expert consultant partners to ensure all economic development evidence, socio‑economic assessments, mitigation, and enhancement measures are robust, defensible, and compliant with planning and consent requirements.
- Contribute to the socio‑economic elements of the Environmental Impact Assessment and Environmental Statement, supporting the Consents team in engagement with the Planning Inspectorate, local authorities, and statutory bodies during the DCO examination.
- Shape Heathrow’s approach to maximising local and regional economic benefits, including labour market planning, workforce forecasting, construction skills pipelines, SME and diverse supplier readiness, regeneration, and inward investment.
- Work with the Chief Economist to oversee the economic case for expansion, demonstrating local, regional, and national benefits while embedding inclusive growth, fair access to opportunity, and long‑term economic resilience.
- Collaborate across Communities, Employment & Skills, Procurement, and senior governance forums to embed education, training, employability, apprenticeships, social value measurement, and economic impact reporting into the Expansion programme.
Qualifications
- Relevant degree or postgraduate qualification in economics, public policy, planning, business or related discipline.
- Strong analytical capability, including economic impact assessment, forecasting and social value measurement.
- Good experience in economic development, regeneration, labour markets or socio economic planning.
- Demonstrated ability to lead complex, multi stakeholder programmes with measurable impact.
- Excellent relationship-building and influencing skills with public, business and community partners.
Ideally, you will also have
- Experience contributing to major planning processes, ideally including DCOs or large infrastructure projects.
- Understanding of Heathrow’s local economic geography and stakeholder environment.
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