Ambitious strategy to tackle air pollution

Environment Secretary Michael Gove has launched an ambitious, long-term strategy to tackle air pollution and reduce particulates across much of the country by 2030.

The new Clean Air Strategy sets out plans to cut the costs of air pollution to society by £1.7 billion every year by 2020, rising to £5.3 billion every year from 2030. This follows a commitment made by the government to halve the number of people living in areas breaching WHO guidelines on particulate matter by 2025.

Currently, air pollution is one of the biggest threats to public health in the UK, behind only cancer, obesity and heart disease. In the UK, more than 40 cities and towns were at, or have exceeded, the World Health Organization limit.

Therefore, to combat this, the strategy includes plans to ensure that only the cleanest stoves are available for sale by 2022, introduce new legislation to prohibit the sale of the most polluting fuels and explore how local authorities can gain further powers to increase the rate of upgrades of inefficient and polluting heating appliances.

Gove said: “The evidence is clear. While air quality has improved significantly in recent years, air pollution continues to shorten lives, harm our children and reduce quality of life. We must take strong, urgent action. Our ambitious strategy includes new targets, new powers for local government and confirms that our forthcoming Environment Bill will include new primary legislation on air quality.

“While air pollution may conjure images of traffic jams and exhaust fumes, transport is only one part of the story and the new strategy sets out the important role all of us - across all sectors of work and society - can play in reducing emissions and cleaning up our air to protect our health.”

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said: “Air pollution is a health issue: it harms the health of the nation. For each of us, our health is unavoidably shaped by the environment we live in. Environmental factors determine around 30 per cent of our healthy life expectancy. Air pollution poses the single greatest environmental threat to human health.

“Breathing dirty air is associated with a host of health problems, from asthma to cardiovascular disease and lung cancer, and all too often it is the most vulnerable – children, older people and those from poorer backgrounds – who are hit hardest. In short: clean air helps you live longer. No-one can tackle air pollution alone so it is a duty of government to act for us all. We are determined to clean up our environment and are taking the lead with this Clean Air Strategy. We have made strides forward over the past few years and the action we are taking today will save lives and improve the health of the nation – both for those of us here today and for generations to come.”