There is a risk of complacency on air quality following compliance with no national framework on the issue, according to local authority climate change group UK100.
The news comes as Defra has confirmed that Southampton City Council’s Environment Act 1995 air quality directions, issued in 2018 and 2019, have been revoked after the city achieved and maintained compliance with the legal limit for nitrogen dioxide.
Christopher Hammond, the chief executive of UK100 and former elected leader of Southampton City Council from 2018 to 2021 – the period in which the directions were made, designed and delivered – said political ambition “tends to fade” when targets are met, but there were still “gaps” that are “the next thing to fix” across the country.
Southampton’s revoking was the eighth in just over a year, with Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Wolverhampton, Derby, South Gloucestershire and the Blackwater Valley authorities of Rushmoor, Surrey Heath, Hampshire and Surrey, all released from directions since May 2025.
Southampton City Council is itself due to be abolished under local government reorganisation, with a successor unitary authority expected in 2027.
UK100 has now warned that the monitoring regimes, officer expertise and political ownership that delivered compliance risk being lost in the transition, unless clean air is explicitly written into reorganisation and devolution settlements.
Christopher Hammond, chief executive of UK100 and former leader of Southampton City Council, said:
“Southampton’s air is measurably cleaner than it was seven years ago, and the government is right to recognise it. I was leader of the council when this strategy was designed and implemented. I was told frequently that it wouldn’t work, that clean air was a niche interest, and that it would drive businesses out. All three were wrong. Nitrogen dioxide across the city has fallen by 30% since 2019, and £6 million has been invested in cycling, buses and taxi standards. The city’s economy has continued to grow.
“Southampton is not alone. Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Wolverhampton, Derby, South Gloucestershire and the Blackwater Valley authorities have all had directions lifted in the past year. Our Breathing Life report, launched this month with the Defra Minister Emma Hardy MP, found that a decade of local action has saved almost 14,000 lives and delivered around £15 billion in economic and social benefits since 2019.
“The risk now is complacency. UK legal limits still sit above WHO guidelines and there is no national framework for what a successful post-compliance approach looks like. Monitoring and political ambition tend to fade once targets are met. Those gaps are the next thing to fix.”
As previously reported on Transport + Energy, UK100’s Breathing Life study with Cambridge Climate and supported by the Clean Air Fund, found that local and regional action prevented almost 14,000 deaths between 2019 and 2025 – and delivered around £15 billion in health and economic benefits.
It puts local action at roughly 35% of England’s overall air quality improvement across that period, rising to 45% if strategic authorities were resourced to use the powers they already hold.
The network is calling for a new Clean Air Act with WHO-aligned targets, long-term funding for local clean air programmes, and national guidance on what authorities should do once compliance is achieved.
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