Clean Air Network

With the English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act now gaining Royal Assent, combined and strategic authorities are set to take on greater powers over transport, planning, housing, economic growth and public health. These are the very decisions that shape the air people breathe, giving regional leaders an unprecedented opportunity to improve it. UK100's Clean Air Network brings together combined and strategic authorities from across the UK to share practical solutions, strengthen local delivery and shape national policy, ensuring clean air is embedded across devolved decision-making. It builds on more than a decade of UK100's work supporting local leadership on clean air and climate action.

Learn more

Embedding clean air at the heart of devolved decision-making

‍What the Network offers

Over the next two years, members will:

Share learning through quarterly peer-learning sessions, bringing together stakeholders from combined, strategic and select authorities with experts from academia, business and the third sector.
Access practical resources, including our flagship research report Breathing Life: Reshaping Regional Clean Air Leadership, case studies and a Clean Air Integration Best Practice Checklist.
Shape collective advocacy to influence the powers, policy and long-term funding needed to accelerate clean air delivery across the UK.

Why now?

Seventy years on from the UK's first Clean Air Act, the air we breathe is cleaner than at any point since the industrial revolution. That progress is worth celebrating, but it is far from finished. Air pollution still contributes to tens of thousands of premature deaths in the UK each year, more than seven per cent of all lives lost, and the Royal College of Physicians has linked long-term exposure to PM2.5 and NO2 to over 700 health conditions. The burden falls hardest on those with the least power to change the air around them: children, older people, and communities already facing disadvantage.

Devolution changes what is possible. As combined and strategic authorities take on greater responsibility for transport, planning, housing and economic development, they take on the very decisions that shape local air quality.

And local action works. Our new report - Breathing Life: Reshaping Regional Clean Air Leadership estimates the impact of local clean air action.

Turning ambition into action

As devolution gathers pace, the Network supports members to move from commitment to delivery. It will support members to -

‍Make the most of existing powers: Explore how transport, planning and environmental powers can be used more effectively to improve local air quality.‍
Prepare for new responsibilities: Build the governance, partnerships and organisational capacity needed to respond to emerging legislation.‍
Embed clean air across decision-making: Break down organisational silos and strengthen collaboration across transport, planning, housing, public health and climate to deliver lasting improvements in air quality.

‍Shaping national policy

The Network provides a platform for combined and strategic authorities to develop shared positions and strengthen national advocacy. Some of our key asks include:

A new Clean Air Act with WHO-aligned statutory targets, supported by a sustained national public awareness campaign on air quality and health. The cross-party Clean Air (Human Rights) Bill (Ella's Law) provides a ready legislative vehicle.

A long-term, consolidated clean air funding settlement that reflects the full value of local action and gives authorities the certainty to plan sustained delivery and build institutional capability.

A national indoor air quality strategy that clarifies responsibilities across government and enables housing, transport and planning policy to work together to reduce health inequalities driven by poor indoor environments.

‍Breathing Life: Reshaping Regional Clean Air Leadership

As part of UK100's tenth anniversary, we have published Breathing Life: Reshaping Regional Clean Air Leadership, a practical, evidence-based guide to support clean air delivery across England.

The report brings together research on governance, legislation, powers, delivery models and impact evidence into a practical framework for strategic and local authorities seeking to embed clean air across regional decision-making.