Last Thursday (2 July 2026) marked the seventieth anniversary of the UK’s world-leading Clean Air Act 1956. But despite huge improvements since this groundbreaking piece of public health legislation, air pollution remains the largest environmental risk to public health in the UK.
Virtually every area across the UK (95%), including Chesterfield, exceeds the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended limits for air pollution, with ruinous effects on the health of communities. [1]
Air pollution contributes to up to 43,000 premature deaths each year. By affecting almost every organ in the body, it increases the risk of cancer, dementia, stroke and heart disease, alongside respiratory conditions such as asthma and COPD. [2]
Chesterfield MP, Toby Perkins, is spearheading efforts in Parliament to tackle the growing toxic air emergency in the UK. The Environmental Audit Committee (EAC), which Toby chairs, is scrutinising the government’s existing air quality targets and plans to achieve them, including whether local authorities in England have the resources they need to monitor air quality and enforce existing rules.
The EAC will grill Environment and Transport Ministers on progress made in tackling air pollution in England and their plans to achieve the government’s targets. The Committee will then publish their final report and recommendations later in the autumn, to which government will have to respond within two months.
Toby has also been raising awareness of the issue of toxic air in the UK and its health impacts. He recently spoke at a parliamentary event to launch Asthma & Lung UK’s new report which highlighted the disproportionate impact of air pollution on low-income and people from ethnic minorities.
In Chesterfield, Toby continues to push to keep plans for the Chesterfield-to-Staveley Regeneration Route scheme on track, to help drive down traffic congestion and air pollution, especially in Brimington’s High Street, Ringwood Road and Church Street, which all exceeded the WHO’s air quality limits (although not the UK’s higher limit for nitrogen dioxide pollution).
Toby Perkins MP said, “There are too many Chesterfield citizens exposed to unacceptable levels of air pollution which has damaging health impacts on elderly people, people living with chronic illness, and especially the very young, which can lead to asthma and other respiratory issues.
The high levels of air pollution in Brimington reinforce the need for the Staveley bypass which I am pursuing with local MPs and the East Midlands Mayor, and it will speed up traffic and take it away from close proximity to homes. It also re-emphasizes the need to support people to use active travel and public transport where possible.
I am also investigating the government’s approach to reducing air pollution across our country with the Environmental Audit Committee. Air pollution is a profound threat to our health as well as a scourge of our precious natural environment and must be tackled with urgency.”
Notes to editors:
- [1] https://www.healthyair.org.uk/hidden-in-plain-sight-why-the-uk-needs-a-new-clean-air-act/
- [2] https://www.asthmaandlung.org.uk/our-air-our-voices
- For more information about the Environmental Audit Committee’s inquiry into air pollution, see here: https://committees.parliament.uk/work/9561/air-pollution-in-england/