Description
The Head of Major Displaced Uses holds senior responsibility for directing Heathrow’s strategy for acquiring and relocating seven operationally critical occupiers impacted by major infrastructure development. Operating in a highly complex commercial, political and regulatory environment, the role provides authoritative leadership across negotiations, land strategy, operational continuity and stakeholder influence, ensuring Heathrow’s long‑term capacity objectives are delivered while protecting day‑to‑day resilience.
The postholder leads a team of Project Managers, shapes multi‑year strategies, and steers high‑stakes negotiations and re‑provisioning plans with a delivery value of approximately £2bn. The role is a senior influencer across the wider programme, ensuring decisions, risks and scenarios are integrated at the portfolio level.
Responsibilities
- Lead the long‑term strategy for acquiring and relocating displaced users, ensuring alignment with Heathrow’s masterplan, regulatory commitments, programme outcomes, and wider airport growth objectives.
- Act as the senior subject‑matter authority on displacement, representing strategy at executive governance forums and providing scenario analysis, risk positions, and strategic recommendations to senior decision‑makers.
- Lead complex, multi‑dimensional negotiations covering land acquisition, hybrid compensation, re‑provisioning, relocations, and commercial settlements, balancing commercial value, legal robustness, and political and community sensitivities.
- Direct the design and delivery of relocation and re‑provisioning strategies, ensuring solutions are feasible, compliant, minimise operational disruption, and integrate effectively with planning, engineering, operations, and programme controls.
- Oversee external commercial, technical, and valuation advisors and manage a high‑performing team of Project Managers, ensuring outputs meet strategic intent, budget parameters, governance standards, and programme risk appetite.
- Identify, assess, and mitigate strategic, legal, commercial, political, and operational risks across all displacement activity, ensuring compliance with legislative frameworks, robust audit trails, and high‑quality board‑level reporting and evidence for scrutiny.
Qualifications
- Extensive senior experience in major infrastructure, regeneration or development projects that include land acquisition, displacement or re‑provisioning of significant occupiers.
- Proven capability leading complex, politically or commercially sensitive negotiations with senior external stakeholders.
- Strong leadership experience managing multidisciplinary delivery teams in high‑risk, high‑value programme environments.
- Deep understanding of commercial structures, valuation, land strategy and compensation frameworks.
- Ability to shape long‑term strategies, influence senior leaders and operate with autonomy in ambiguous, high-pressure scenarios.
- Strong financial and commercial literacy, with ability to interpret valuations, business cases and cost models.
Ideally, you will also have
- Degree in Property, Planning, Law, Engineering or related field.
- Professional membership (RICS, RTPI, APM or equivalent).
- Experience of compulsory purchase, hybrid compensation schemes and NSIP/DCO-style planning regimes.
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