Our approach to tackling air pollution in inner cities

Improving the health of those most affected by air pollution

We will concentrate on those most vulnerable to the effects of air pollution – children from pregnancy to early adolescence, people with heart and lung conditions and older people. By doing this, we are more likely to:

• Bring about improvements in overall health in our area
• See tangible changes that we can measure

Places where vulnerable groups spend their time

In order to better understand people’s exposure to air pollution, we are carrying out research into where and how people live, work, learn and travel. This way we can more effectively develop and test possible solutions.

Creating evidence by starting with a small number of target areas

Air pollution has multiple causes and people can be exposed to it in many ways – both indoors and outdoors. However, less is known about what genuinely works to reduce its impact on our health.

Research we commissioned from King’s College London found: “Few of the interventions identified assessed the effect on air quality, and even fewer considered the impact on public health. In many cases, it was not clear how large the likely health benefit is and by how much air quality will be improved.”

To match the complexity of the problem, we will need a combination of solutions operating at the same time. To do this effectively, we are concentrating on building the evidence base of what works, and focusing our resources in a small number of target areas.

Working and sharing with a broad coalition of partners

Over the ten years of our programme, we will work on multiple projects simultaneously and with many partners – from local residents and community groups to urban planners, businesses and the NHS. We call this a whole-systems approach, which helps us tackle complex health challenges from different angles.

We also want to share what has and hasn’t worked with other London boroughs and cities.

This way, successful initiatives that have been tested at our local level, can be scaled up and applied in other urban areas in the UK and in other cities around the world.