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Government's clean air strategy lacks detail, say Labour and Greenpeace

ENVIRONMENT Secretary Michael Gove’s “vague” new clean air strategy was lambasted today for placing more pressure and responsibility on struggling councils to tackle pollution.

Mr Gove said the Clean Air Strategy 2019 aims to reduce people’s exposure to particulate matter (PM), which the World Health Organisation has identified as the most damaging pollutant.

The government said it is committed to halving the number of people living in areas breaching WHO guidelines on PM by 2025. It will also consider how councils can be given powers to increase the rate of upgrades of inefficient and polluting heating appliances.

But shadow environment secretary Sue Hayman said it was alarming that the Tory strategy consists of “vague targets and no detail,” leaving local councils to tackle a national problem.

“It is an abdication of responsibility to continue to shunt this problem onto cash-strapped local authorities when even the process of co-ordinating the submission of clean air plans from councils is now in serious disarray,” she said.

Labour’s London Assembly environment spokeswoman Leonie Cooper said that the government must set out exactly how ministers will assist local authorities and City Hall with the necessary resources to carry out their obligations.

Environment spokesman for the Local Government Association Martin Tett said that councils want to help reduce harmful emissions but that their efforts would need to be “underpinned by local flexibility and sufficient funding.”

The strategy also commits the government to ending the sale of conventional new diesel and petrol cars and vans by 2040 and an increase in fines for drivers who leave their engines running.

Clean air campaigner for Greenpeace UK Morten Thaysen said that the measures would not be quick enough to tackle air pollution now.

“Even after recognising the seriousness of the air pollution crisis, the government is proposing nothing new to tackle pollution from road transport,” he said.

“A 2040 phase-out date for diesel and petrol vehicles is effectively saying that: ‘Yes, your grandchildren deserve clean air — but your children will just have to go on breathing toxic fumes so as not to disrupt the car industry’s sales forecasts’.”

Air pollution in Britain contributes to about 40,000 deaths each year and costs the economy an estimated £22 billion.

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