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The budget for local councils in England to tackle air pollution in their areas has plummeted from a high of £225 million a year to just £1.5 million in the last five years, according to new figures obtained by campaigners.
Mums for Lungs, a group of parent campaigners, had questioned a statement often repeated by Government figures – that they have provided £575m to local authorities to clean up the air.
A Government spokesperson told the Guardian in June: “We have already provided £575m to support local authorities to improve air quality and are developing a series of interventions to reduce emissions so that everyone’s exposure to air pollution is reduced.”
But the department has now revealed that this refers to Government grants to councils to tackle air pollution since 2016 – in other words, the Labour Government is taking credit for spending under the Conservatives, going back to the start of Theresa May’s term.
The funding package came from Defra and the Department for Transport, via the ‘Joint Air Quality Unit’, to support the development and delivery of local plans for addressing toxic nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution.
But the funding allocated has collapsed over the past year. Mums for Lungs say it means it will take far longer for areas to meet requirements to cut emissions to within World Health Organisation guidelines.
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Mums for Lungs founder Jemima Hartshorn told this outlet: “Every time air pollution comes up [Government officials] say: ‘we are spending £575m’.
“We wanted to understand what this number actually is. [It is] the Defra air quality fund that used to exist for local authorities was suspended in April 2024 and not replaced with any other fund.”
While councils will be spending some of their own cash to tackle air pollution locally, she added: “Local authorities are scraping from their own reduced budgets.”
Stark Numbers Revealed
Data received under the Freedom of Information Act from the environment department Defra shows the average grant provided to councils in England, under eight years of a Conservative Government to tackle air pollution from 2016/17 to 2023/24 was £71.8 million.
But this has now fallen to just £1.5 million under the Labour Government in 2024/25 – representing a 99.4% reduction in funding from a high of £225 million in 2020/21, suggesting the funding has run dry.
It could also suggest a move away from Government support for ‘Clean Air Zones’ which have been rolled out by some local authorities, including – most notably – by Sadiq Khan in Greater London. Labour leader Keir Starmer was critical of the plans to expand London’s Ultra Low Emissions Zone, but it has since proven to be a public health success.
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A Defra spokesperson did not dispute the figures but told Byline Times: “Air pollution is a public health issue, and we are taking action to tackle it across the country.
“We have provided Local Authorities with £575 million since 2018 [sic] to improve air quality, and we continue to work with them to cut harmful emissions and reduce everyone’s exposure to air pollution.” (The 2018 figure actually appears to actually refer to 2016, according to the disclosures from the department seen by Byline Times.)
The department was asked via the Freedom of Information Act: “How much funding for local authorities [in England] to…