Air Quality: Working to improve air quality in the West Midlands
Up to 2,300 people die early due to long term exposure to air pollution every year in the West Midlands.
Clean air is essential to our health and wellbeing, as well as the environment. And that’s why we’re working hard to create safe air quality for everyone in the West Midlands.
For more information on air pollution in the region, including near real time data, visit our new West Midlands region air quality website.
What is the West Midlands Combined Authority doing about air pollution?
We are working alongside local authorities, and other important stakeholders, to deliver our regional vision of cleaner air for all the West Midlands.
To do this, we have developed:
- A Regional Air Quality Framework (see below) that contains 145 options to improve air quality that could be put in place locally and across the region to improve air quality.
- A West Midlands Air Quality Implementation Plan (see below) that looks at the priorities for action from 2024 – 2026. It should be noted that action does not mean full delivery in every case, however starting the process now is essential. This will be the first in a series of implementation plans that draw on the larger Framework to deliver regional change.
Alongside this, the WMCA environment team has worked with our Greener Together Citizens’ Panel to think about how we should roll the framework measures out across the region, and the things we should consider when developing new actions.
This has resulted in a set of guiding principles, which can be found in the framework itself, but also in a report focusing on the Panels involvement in our air quality work.
Air Quality Delivery
Utilising funding secured by the WMCA through the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government (MHCLA), the following actions to improve air quality have been delivered:
- Installation of a region wide air quality sensor network. The network monitors multiple pollutants, including particulate matter and nitrogen dioxide.
- Launch of a West Midlands air quality website. The website includes information on air pollution across the region, as well as a data dashboard presenting near real time pollutant concentrations from the sensor network.
- Behaviour change trials across the region. Trials included working with construction sites on reducing emissions, to looking at the types of messaging which best initiates behaviour change, as well as working with pharmacists to disseminate information on to those with pre-existing health conditions.
- Engagement events with community organisations to help them better understand what air pollution is, and how it can impact health through delivering data digitalisation workshops.
More recently, work to deliver Framework actions around schools, increased communication to the public on how they can reduce their exposure, and enabling better consideration of air quality in planning has commenced. This has included setting up task and finish groups which are made up of representatives from key stakeholders across the region, ensuring work is delivered collaborative and appropriate to all relevant stakeholders across the region.
Contact us
For more information on any of our air quality work, please contact us below.