United Kingdom

Air pollution in the UK

IAir quality in the UK has improved over recent decades, but air pollution remains the biggest environmental threat to health. Air pollution was linked to 30,000 premature deaths in 2025 and millions of people are still exposed to unhealthy air, particularly low-income and racialised communities.

Dirty air also costs the economy more than £500 million every week through healthcare costs, ill health and lost productivity. Transport, domestic heating and other combustion sources continue to contribute to harmful pollution, particularly in towns and cities.

If you live near a busy road, you are more likely to have asthma, you’re more likely to be impacted by air pollution — and black and Asian people are more likely to live in urban areas.

Rosamund Adoo-Kissi-Debrah – Founder, Director and Trustee of the Ella Roberta Family Foundation

Improving air quality is an opportunity to generate health, economic, environmental and social benefits. Cleaner air resulting from the UK’s net zero transition could generate  £7.7 billion through productivity gains by 2050. Research shows that up to 17,000 lives could be saved each year if the UK’s air quality met World Health Organization guidelines.

The UK’s progress and solutions for cleaner air

Eight Clean Air Zones have been created or expanded across the UK in recent years, including in Bath, Brighton, Portsmouth and the expansion of London’s Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ). In 2024, London met legal limits for toxic nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) pollution for the first time — nearly 200 years earlier than had been projected before ULEZ. During the first year of the expanded zone, NO₂ pollution in outer London fell by 24% and exhaust PM2.5 emissions were 31% lower. A report by Imperial College London found premature deaths in London attributable to air quality dropped 40% from 2019.

Alongside these local successes, the UK government brought forward its national PM2.5 target by a decade, committing to achieve the WHO guideline of 10 µg/m³ by 2030. This brings the UK’s ambition into closer alignment with the EU, which has the one of the most progressive air quality laws in the world. However, we need more action to reduce NO2 and to implement an ambitious NO2 reduction target.

Our work and impact in the UK

Our partners have been instrumental in securing the UK’s clean air progress. We have helped build the evidence, public support and advocacy for policies and solutions at local and national levels.

Breathe London was a world-first monitoring network combining 100 low-cost sensor pods with high quality measurement techniques. The project showed that low-cost sensor systems and mobile monitoring are valid ways to generate useful data. The initiative raised awareness of air pollution across London, and delivered policy change within boroughs and the Greater London Authority (GLA). The project has since been scaled up across the capital and  inspired the global Breathe Cities initiative.

We have also supported community organisations like Mums for Lungs and the Ella Roberta Foundation to strengthen public demand for action. Mums for Lungs successfully advocated for ‘School Streets’ schemes, where roads near schools are closed during drop-off and pick-up times to reduce children’s exposure to air pollution. There are over 800 School Streets across London, and around 200 across England.