The Labour party has demanded stricter limits on air pollution after analysis showed the close correlation between children living in poverty and dirty air in the UK.
Five London boroughs rank worst for child poverty and worst for dirty air, according to government data collated by Labour, mapping areas of high poverty against statistics on air pollution. The analysis showed that the higher the rate of child poverty in a given area, the dirtier the air there was on average, with most of the 50 most polluted areas in the UK also showing the highest rates of child poverty.
Boroughs in Birmingham, Southampton, Portsmouth, Sandwell and Walsall also showed high correlations between child poverty and air pollution.
In the 11 local authorities that exceed the WHO’s recommended guideline limit of an annual mean concentration of 10 micrograms per cubic metre of air (µg/m3), an average of 39.5% of children are living in poverty – much higher than the national average of 31%.
Altogether, about 6.7 million children are living in areas of the UK where air pollution has breached legal limits, of whom about 2 million are also living in poverty, according to the research.
The announcement by the Labour party follows a meeting in December with Keir Starmer, Ed Miliband, and campaign group Choked Up, a group of young black and brown teenagers living in areas affected by air pollution, who are calling for a right to clean air.
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