A coronavirus legacy: better air quality for better health

This is why improving air quality to improve our health is such a fitting legacy from COVID-19. Better air quality means better health. And the improvements would be most dramatically felt by those who have the worst health outcomes: people living in urban areas.

We are calling on the Government to adopt the Committee’s recommendations in full. This means we need to see more action, investment and joined up working beyond the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, from Department of Health and Social Care to Department of Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and the Department for Transport. A long term, cross-government response is crucial to addressing the health impacts of air pollution, and in ensuring that recovery from COVID-19 cannot be at the expense of the environment.

Impact on Urban Health will continue to help with this: through our health effects of air pollution programme, we are working with key players in the private sector, such as construction companies, couriers and hauliers, to understand the barriers to them taking more environmentally friendly action and collaborating to co-develop solutions. We are also working to amplify the voices of those most impacted by air pollution and ensure that policies and solutions work for them. We would be happy to share this insight with Government to support a green, healthy and just recovery from COVID-19.

This is a time for action. That action must deliver better air quality and result in better health.