Calls for government to bring in new Clean Air Act

The government is under renewed pressure to introduce a new Clean Air Act to tackle the UK’s toxic levels of air pollution.

Ministers are due back in the high court soon to defend their current plans which have previously been ruled spoor that they are illegal.

Ahead of the hearing, a coalition of experts has called on ministers to respond to a crisis that causes about 50,000 early deaths every year in the UK.

The Clean Air in London campaign and Baroness Jenny Jones, the Green party peer, have released a proposed clean air bill calling for breathing clean air to be a human right.

The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IME) has also called on the government to introduce a modern Clean Air Act, equivalent to one produced in the 1950s in response to London’s Great Smog, in order to reduce harmful emissions across the UK’.

The idea of a new Clean Air Act has been building as the public and politicians have become aware of the scale of the UK’s air pollution crisis. Last year a UK wide survey found that two-thirds of the population supported the idea of a new Clean Air Act.

A spokesperson for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “Air pollution has improved significantly since 2010, but we recognise there is more to do which is why we have put in place a £3.5 billion plan to improve air quality and reduce harmful emissions.

“We will also end the sale of conventional new diesel and petrol cars and vans by 2040, and this year we will publish a comprehensive clean air strategy which will set out further steps to tackle air pollution.”