The UK Supreme Court’s ruling on air pollution is welcome news. The UK has been breaching legal limits for nitrogen dioxide (NO2) for the past five years, with particularly serious consequences in London, where poor air quality causes over 4,000 early deaths a year.

We have long recognised that more needs to be done by central government to combat the UK’s air pollution crisis. That’s why we, along with other London local authorities, are already helping in the Department for the Environment's push to meet EU target levels on NO2 by cleaning up our own fleets and banning idling engines, regulating construction activity and using our planning powers to ensure new buildings are energy efficient and low emission.

These measures also support the Mayor of London’s reforms but we still need to further reduce pollution from diesel vehicles. In particular, government funding is urgently needed to finance the replacement of diesel taxis with cleaner models.

John Tomlinson, Environment Committee Deputy Chairman, City of London Corporation
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