Responding to new analysis by City Hall which revealed 3.1 million children in England go to schools in areas with toxic air, Nick Bowes, Chief Executive at Centre for London said:

“Raising children in London shouldn’t damage their health but these shocking figures from City Hall show that it does.

“Successive mayors have promised to do more to tackle this crisis but London still exceeds legal air pollution limits many times over.

“Around half of air pollution comes from road transport, so we must find new ways to significantly reduce vehicle-related pollution. Autumn’s expansion of the Ultra Low Emission Zone will be a huge step, but City Hall could be bolder and adopt a pay-per-mile road user charging scheme. This would deliver cleaner air, more active travel and reduce congestion, as well as providing a substantial income stream to help plug TfL’s finances.

“The city also needs more devolution so that it can tackle the other sources of poor air quality other than road vehicles”

ENDS