Barry Gardiner MP, Labour’s Shadow Minister for the Environment, responding to the WHO’s report on air pollution in cities, said:

“29,000 people in the UK are dying every year because of air pollution in our towns and cities and yet the Government has no strategy. This World Health Organisation report shows that there is an urgent need for the Government to take action against this silent killer and reduce the level of air pollution.

“The Government recently had to scrap its local air quality strategy because the evidence indicated that it would have made the problem worse and they now have no plan at all. This report shows that the Government’s failure is increasing the health inequalities that blight our cities, including Nottingham, London and Birmingham.”