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Essex homeowners who sold their houses to the British Airports Authority (BAA) at the end of last year want the opportunity to buy them back.

The properties were sold to the aviation giant under the assumption that they would be demolished if plans to expand Stansted Airport ever came to fruition. However, as the expansion of all London airports was scrapped as part of the Conservatives’ election manifesto, the BAA-owned homes no longer face being destroyed to make way for an extra terminal or runway. This means, say ex-residents, that the homes should be returned to the property market and sold.

BAA officials began moonlighting as estate agents in October 2009, and bought more than 300 homes near Stansted and Heathrow airports, paying up to three times the market price in some instances. Since the bottom fell out of the campaign in July, shortly after David Cameron was elected as Prime Minister, the BAA’s houses have been rented to short-term tenants or, even worse, left empty.

Ex-resident, Maggie Sutton, is unhappy that her family was forced to leave a home that they "loved." She has pleaded with the BAA, albeit through a BBC TV programme, to “rebuild the community.” “It is heartbreaking to live the way we’ve lived for the last eight years," Maggie explained.

BAA bosses are “reviewing how to dispose of the properties,” according to the BBC News website, but the aviation firm claims that it has not yet been approached by anybody wanting to re-purchase their home in the Stansted area.

Peter Sanders, chairman of the Stop Stansted Expansion (SSE) pressure group, said that the local community has been “destroyed.” SSE is petitioning the government to place a 50-year block on expansions at Stansted Airport, regardless of who owns the Essex hub, or which political party happens to be in power at the time.