Centre for Cities, a think tank dedicated to improving the economies of the UK's largest cities and towns, has today (27/01/2020) published its Cities Outlook 2020 report which highlights the urgent need to reduce air pollution in the United Kingdom. 

Air pollution kills thousands of people each year, and affects the health of many more. Although local data on the number of people whose health is affected by poor air quality is limited — what can be estimated are the deaths attributable to one pollutant, PM2.5, in cities across the UK. This one pollutant is estimated to have caused just over 14,400 deaths of those aged 25 or older in UK cities in 2017.

Source: https://www.centreforcities.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Cities-Outlook-2020.pdf

Transport and the burning of wood and coal are the biggest contributors to air pollution. At a national level, road transport accounts for 34 per cent of all NO2 emissions, and this rises to 42 per cent in cities. There is a clear South / North divide to the problem. Across multiple indicators, cities in the South of England do worse than others.

The Centre for Cities report says that implementing some of the required policy measures is politically difficult due to the strength of the 'motoring and other lobbies', but by no means impossible as London has shown. 

Recommendations from the report:

1. Those cities with poor quality air should ‘level up’ to London-style Clean Air Zones, charging the most environmentally-damaging vehicles to enter their centres.
2. Advocate collectively to central government for more powers and resources to clean up their air.
3. Expand their policy action to have a broader focus than just transport:

• Set tighter minimum emission standards for burning stoves and ban
  domestic burning in areas with high PM2.5 levels.
• Work on raising public awareness on the effect of domestic combustion.
• Restrict the sale of polluting fuels.

Further, it is recommended that the UK Government should:

1. Triple the size of the Clean Air Fund, which currently is £220 million for the period 2018/19 to 2020/21 to help cities introduce policies to improve air quality. A share of the budget should be specifically used to fight crossboundary air pollution by funding authorities to make interventions that improve the air quality of their neighbours.
2. Introduce Environmental Improvement Bonds, based on the current Social Impact Bond model, allowing cities to keep some of the savings made from reduction in NHS treatment of air quality-related illness.
3. Secure an international agreement with the EU to tackle trans-boundary air pollution coming from the continent.
4. Expedite passing its Environment Bill, which should legislate to:

• Adopt the WHO’s stricter guidelines on PM2.5 as a target to be met by 2030.
• Give local authorities greater powers to declare and enforce smoke control areas.
• Establish an independent body to hold the Government to account on environmental issues after the UK leaves the EU.

The report also presents data from UK cities on a number of measures such as population, productivity, innovation, environment and more. 

Source: www.centreforcities.org

For more on air quality see:

Blog post - How we came to understand the health impacts of air pollution

Technical article - Quintet of councils take aim to reduce pollution from vehicles

CIHT publications on streets and environment in the urban space