My Lords, I declare my interest as a vice-president of the Local Government Association and co-president of London Councils, the body that represents the 32 London boroughs and the City of London Corporation.
I will speak to Amendments 156A to 156M in my name. In doing so, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay of Llandaff, for adding her name to them, and the noble Baroness, Lady Altmann, who has confirmed to me her support for these amendments but sadly was a little too late to add her name.
We are starting now to consider the part of this Bill on air quality and it is, perhaps, interesting and relevant to note that today is the anniversary of the date on which Royal Assent was given to the first national Clean Air Act, back in 1956. The problem is still very much with us; indeed, in many respects, it is much worse than it was then. Air pollution is a very serious problem which affects us all. It contributes to up to 40,000 premature deaths in the UK every year, so I welcome the Government’s acknowledgment of the risk that poor air quality presents to human health.
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I also welcome the Minister’s recognition—repeated in his letter to all Peers, dated 10 June—that,
“local authorities will have an important role to play in delivering reductions in PM2.5.”
My amendments come as a package and seek to give substance to that recognition by the Minister.
In the last Session of Parliament, I introduced the Emissions Reduction (Local Authorities in London) Bill to change this and I have been trying to reintroduce it again in this Session. That Bill had the support of both the City of London Corporation and London Councils, and sought powers for local authorities in London to control emissions from combustion plants if their borough had air pollution above WHO guidelines. That Bill was restricted to London but, of course, it is a much wider problem than simply in London, and I recognise that. My amendments, therefore, cover the whole of the country and are not restricted to any particular areas. They introduce a series of proposed new clauses to the Bill, mirroring the clauses of my previous Private Member’s Bill, but applying them well beyond London to all local authorities.
Local authorities have a statutory duty to reduce emissions in their areas. However, they do not have sufficient powers to take effective action to achieve such reductions. Public attention has rightly been focused on the need to cut emissions from vehicles, but very little has been said of non-road pollution and emissions of nitrogen oxides and particulate matter, dangerous carcinogens that penetrate deep into our lungs and bloodstream. Many emissions are from these non-road sources, collectively referred to as “combustion plant”. As we make improvements in reducing emissions from vehicles, we must shift our focus to these other sources of pollution.
The pandemic saw a drastic decrease in road use and a consequential reduction in road emissions. For example, lockdown resulted in levels of nitrogen dioxide in the City of London 40% lower than in 2019. However, the pollutant most damaging to human health, known as PM2.5, remained at roughly the same level. The negligible impact on PM2.5 of such a significant reduction in transport activity highlights the importance of reducing non-road emissions.
The proposed new clauses introduced by these amendments would give local authorities additional discretionary powers. The amendments have the support of the City of London Corporation, which has a long history of involvement in cleaning up London’s dirty air, and of London Councils, the representative body of the London boroughs. However, as I said before, the clauses in this Bill relate to all local authorities in England. Amendment 156A would insert a new clause that grants any local authority in England the power to designate an area within its borders an air quality improvement area—with the acronym “AQIA”—if the air quality of that area exceeds WHO air quality guidelines for one or more pollutants. This designation is, in effect, a gateway to implementing the range of air quality measures provided for in the rest of this group of new clauses.
At present, some local authorities attempt to use planning controls to regulate various types of polluting plant. This has proved to be ineffective, which is not surprising because planning controls were never intended to be used in this manner. The system of regulation established by these new clauses would empower local authorities to take action to reduce emissions and enable the Secretary of State to set emission limits that will have practical implications.
Amendment 156B provides the power to ensure that, where it applies in an Air Quality Improvement Area—AQIA—the amount of nitrogen oxides emitted by certain gas-fired boilers within the area must
“be less than an amount specified in regulations made by the Secretary of State.”
It also creates an offence in relation to the “installation” of such plants.
Amendment 156C has a similar effect in relation to “non-road mobile machinery” such as gardening equipment and construction and agricultural machinery. It applies limits to the amount of nitrogen oxides and particulate matter that can be emitted by this machinery within an AQIA and provides for offences for operating non-compliant machinery.
Amendment 156D applies limits specified by the Secretary of State to the amount of nitrogen oxides and particulate matter emitted by certain “stationary generators” within the AQIA and creates offences, as before. Many office buildings have back-up diesel generators for the event of a power cut. Instead, they are operated to lower the building’s electricity costs by selling electricity back into the grid. This frequently occurs during periods of high atmospheric pressure, temperature inversion, cold weather and high pollution, when the nitrogen oxide and particulate matter cannot easily be dispersed and becomes trapped. This new clause would enable local authorities to set periods when the operation of these generators would be prohibited, except in the case of a power cut.
Amendment 156E inserts a new clause that provides that, in an AQIA, the amount of nitrogen oxides and particulate matter emitted by certain solid-fuel boilers
“must be less than an amount specified ... by the Secretary of State”,
with similar installation offences. Amendment 156F provides similar powers in relation to
“Combined cooling, heat and power”
plants.
Amendment 156G inserts a new clause in relation to any offence created by Amendments 156B to 156F, so that, where such an offence has been committed by a body corporate, an individual can also be held liable.
Amendment 156H provides a defence to these offences if the person charged “reasonably believed” the plant to have been “designed to comply” with the regulations, “not modified” and
“maintained in accordance with the manufacturer’s instructions.”
Amendment 156J allows a local authority to
“require the occupier of any premises within an air quality improvement area ... to supply such information as may be specified in that notice”,
with offences for non-compliance.
Amendment 156K relates to the “stationary idling” of vehicles, to which my noble friends have already referred in this debate. More action must be taken to reduce this avoidable pollution, which often occurs outside schools, causing serious harm to children’s developing lungs. As my noble friend Lady Randerson has already said, stationary idling is already illegal, but the penalty of £20 is hardly a deterrent—and she has already referred to the limitations on its enforcement. This new clause increases the penalty within an AQIA to £100, rising to £150 in certain circumstances.
Amendment 156L inserts a new clause that obliges the Secretary of State to make regulations specifying the maximum nitrogen oxides and particulate matter emissions permitted for each type of plant described in Amendments 156B to 156F. Finally, Amendment 156M defines key terms used in other clauses in this group.
These amendments come as a package, intended to give local authorities effective power to actually bring about the reduction in emissions that we—including the Minister—are all seeking to achieve. It is reassuring to see increasing public understanding of the silent killer of air pollution, but we can and should go further. We have an opportunity in this Bill to empower local authorities across the country to tackle more effectively the problem of non-road emissions, with the potential to make a significant impact in combating England’s poor air.
I look forward to the Minister’s agreeing that these amendments do indeed give substance to his recognition that local authorities have an important role to play in improving air quality—and that the Government will support them.