Response to the Greater Manchester Clean Air Plan’s approval
The UK Government has approved the Clean Air Plan submitted by councils in Greater Manchester, designed to reduce illegal levels of Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) air pollution in the city region.
While we are pleased to see clean air measures approved for investment and to see this protracted process come to conclusion, it is evident that the measures contained in the plan will not go far enough to protect the health of people in Greater Manchester.
Let Manchester Breathe, the Healthy Air Coalition’s Greater Manchester working group, responded to today’s news of the UK Government’s approval:
We are glad to hear that the long awaited decision has finally been made by Defra on Greater Manchester Clean Air Plan after such lengthy delays and lack of action. However, the plan does not go nearly far enough in mandating Greater Manchester to take more ambitious steps to reduce air pollution in the shortest time possible.
The latest DEFRA stats for Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) in 2023, show that Manchester has consistently the highest annual mean level in the country and this has increased by 6% since 2021. It is the only local authority that was designated as being in exceedance of legal limits in 2021 that is continuing to see an upward trajectory.
With the latest figures for licenced vehicles showing private car ownership in Manchester increasing well above the national average (7% compared to 2.7% nationally) since 2021, as well as a 13% in year-on-year increase in delays due to congestion, the Bee Network alone is clearly not sufficient on its own to disincentivise short car journeys or decrease pollution.
The agreed GM Clean Air Plan is based on achieving UK legal compliance of 40μg /m3 only by 2027 and this cannot be considered satisfactory, especially as Manchester and Salford rank in the top ten for highest number of emergency admissions and deaths for lung conditions across the UK.
Health-based research by the World Health Organization is very clear – due to the huge detrimental impact of NO2, all countries should be aiming to protect the public by aiming for of 10μg /m3 annual mean of NO2. All EU member states have now committed to achieving levels of below 20μg /m3 by 2030. In its modifications to the GM Places for Everyone Development Plan in 2024, GMCA also recommitted to gaining BreatheLife City status and achieving all revised WHO targets by 2030. All recorded levels of NO2 in Greater Manchester in 2023 exceed the recommended levels.
Andy Burnham and the UK government need to step and do more to protect our children’s health.
Catherine Thomson, Manchester Friends of the Earth co-ordinator said:
“Air pollution is a public health emergency.
We know that toxic Nitrogen Dioxide causes untold damage to the lungs of our children. A child born in 2017 – when the Government was instructed to reduce air pollution in the shortest time possible – will be 10 years old before Greater Manchester plans to reach the legal limits. Legal limits are not safe limits – we need a much more ambitious Clean Air Plan that will honour the Greater Manchester pledge to meet World Health Organisation air quality levels by 2030.”
Maddy Dawe, Regional Clean Air Lead at Asthma + Lung UK said:
“The long-awaited approval of Greater Manchester’s clean air plan is a good first step, but as it stands it still does not go far enough. Whilst we welcome the measures outlined in the plan, they are only designed to cut air pollution levels to just below legal limits, far above the internationally recognised guidelines set by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Without striving to meet the more ambitious WHO guidelines, Greater Manchester will not achieve the rapid reduction in air pollution necessary to safeguard people’s health, particularly those with lung conditions. Greater Manchester has had the highest rate of air pollution of any region in the UK for two years, while we have waited for any plan to be approved. This is contributing to high asthma rates and up to 1,200 early deaths each year. (1,2) More ambition is needed from the mayor to protect the health of our most vulnerable communities.”
Cazz Ward, Walk Ride GM said:
“We fully support the roll out of the Bee Network but the GM Clean Air Plan is in no way ambitious enough to reduce the high levels of NO2 in GM.
An integrated public transport network is not enough to enable modal shift to change behaviour from choosing trips by private motor vehicle as the default. Short journeys made by private motor vehicles and driving to the city centre must be disincentivised with strong policy. At the same time, we must rapidly increase investment in high-quality walking and cycling infrastructure, in order to make active travel a safer and more attractive option.
This is also an issue of social justice. With nearly 40% of households in Manchester not owning a vehicle and 33 % in Salford, there is an unequal burden of health impacts, with the percentage of households without a car increasing around the areas that have the highest levels of NO2 emissions, such as along arterial roads.”
Liz Godfrey, Mums for Lungs, said:
“We’ve waited 15 years for action to be taken and we’re really disappointed that the Government is supporting a plan that only aims to achieve UK legal limits of 40ug/m3 when the WHO and EU have said that this is no longer acceptable.
It is unbelievable that Greater Manchester’s children are not going to be better protected. This decision clearly lacks ambition – we have the highest paediatric admission rates for asthma in the country.”
Jane Ward, Let’s Talk Clean Air Whalley Range, said:
“This news is devastating. Respiratory related hospital admissions for primary aged children continue to be through the roof. Doctors surgeries, schools, community and faith organisations in the Whalley Range Clean Air hub are doing everything we can to improve the air quality. We can’t do it on our own, we need strong political action to reduce admissions now.”
1 Air quality compliance data; DEFRA; July 2024
2 Air pollution and you; Clean Air Greater Manchester; July 2024