Air pollution is estimated to have killed 1.8 million people in 2019 alone (Nick Ansell/PA)
(Picture: PA Wire)London’s toxic air remains a silent killer. A leading contributor to strokes, asthma and cancers, it can be attributed to an estimated 4,000 deaths in the capital in 2019. That is why Mayor Sadiq Khan is right to treat improving our city’s poor air quality as an urgent priority.
Traditional internal combustion engine vehicles are the leading cause of London’s air pollution, generating half of the nitrogen oxides and particulate matter that clog our air and get into our lungs. They cause congestion — costing the capital billions of pounds a year — and by emitting carbon dioxide, contribute to climate change.
Khan’s policy proposals — ranging from an expanded Ulez to a Greater London boundary charge — may go further than some Londoners feel is acceptable. What is beyond debate is that we cannot continue to live in a city where the air around us is a threat to everyone: young and old, inner borough and outer.
London has the opportunity to once again lead the world by taking the action required to clean up our neighbourhoods, fund our public transport network and meet the Mayor’s target of becoming a net-zero carbon city by 2030. These proposals should be treated on their merits.
Time to end WFH
Covid continues to plunge in the capital. Cases have fallen by up to 54 per cent in a week, further evidence that the Omicron wave is dissipating. Hospital admissions of coronavirus patients have also dropped.
This welcome news has fuelled calls from businesses to scrap the work from home guidance early. Bringing back workers even one week sooner could be the difference between a firm surviving or going out of business.
Ministers need not stand on ceremony. If the data supports it, the home working guidance should come to an end now.
