The government suffered a humiliating High Court defeat over London’s toxic air yesterday when a judge ruled that its plans to cut deadly pollution levels in the capital are not good enough.
In a victory for environmental campaigners, Justice Garnham ruled that ministers “fell into error” with their purported timetable to meet lawful standards of air quality by 2025.
The verdict was a triumph for green law firm ClientEarth, which challenged what it called a “continuing failure to tackle the national air pollution crisis”. A spokesman for Environment Secretary Andrea Leadsom accepted the ruling and said she would consider how to respond.
The government’s latest defeat follows a ruling won by ClientEarth in the Supreme Court last April. The court declared that “immediate” action was needed to address levels of nitrogen dioxide, which academics believe causes 10,000 premature deaths in the capital each year. The justices set a deadline for the government to produce new plans to comply with European Union laws. But ClientEarth said the subsequent Air Quality Plan was “woefully inadequate” and therefore unlawful.
A packed courtroom in London heard that the judge agreed. He said the environment secretary “fell into error” in “fixing on a projected compliance date of 2020 (and 2025 for London)”.
He also concluded that the environment secretary “fell into error by adopting too optimistic a model for future emissions”.
After the ruling, a Defra (department for environment, food & rural affairs) spokeswoman said: “Whilst our huge investment in green transport initiatives and plans to introduce Clean Air Zones around the country will help tackle this problem, we accept the court’s judgment. We will now carefully consider this ruling, and our next steps, in detail.”
Lawyer Alan Andrews, of ClientEarth, said: “The judge has ordered them to provide an updated, improved air quality plan.”
Dr Penny Woods, chief executive of the British Lung Foundation, said: “The judgment shows yet again that we need further and faster action in improving air quality. We are ready to work constructively with government, together finding ways of reducing pollution to protect the nation’s lung health.
“Each year in the UK, around 40,000 early deaths are attributable to exposure to outdoor air pollution. It’s a public health crisis. That’s why we urgently need a new clean air act that restricts the most polluting vehicles from our urban areas.”
London mayor Sadiq Khan, the Scottish and Welsh first ministers and the transport secretary were all “interested parties” in the case.
ClientEarth chief executive James Thornton said: “I am pleased that the judge agrees with us that the government could and should be doing more to deal with air pollution.”
Limits for nitrogen dioxide were introduced by EU law in 1999. They were originally meant to be achieved by 2010. Yesterday’s ruling could have implications for Heathrow’s expansion plans, as it could strengthen legal challenges to a third runway on air quality grounds.