Tag: Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs

England’s national parks are set to benefit from new additional funding announced by the government today (01 March 2023). £4.4 million will be provided to the country’s ten National Park Authorities to support services such as visitor centres and park rangers.

The funding award is in recognition of the vital role that our national parks play in protecting our precious wildlife and landscapes and the importance they have for tourism, the regional economy, and public access. Each authority will be awarded an equal share of the grant.

Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey said:

Our National Parks are the jewel in our cherished landscapes. They support thriving communities, economies, wildlife and are important places for public health and wellbeing.

This additional £4.4 million of funding will support the important work that National Park Authorities do across our countryside, and allow local people and visitors to enjoy these much loved spaces

The funding will help protect vital assets, such as education centres and ranger services, and will provide more opportunities for people to enjoy National Parks. It could also be used to support the creation of new trails, residential programmes and mobility schemes. It will also support access and engagement programmes helping to conserve the natural beauty, wildlife and cultural heritage of these protected landscapes.

The Farming in Protected Landscapes scheme, currently delivered across 10 National Parks and 34 Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) since 2021, will also be extended until March 2025. This will enable National Parks and AONBs to continue delivering outcomes for nature, climate, people and place.

Further information:

• The 10 National Park Authorities to benefit from an equal share of the £4.4 million grant are: Broads, Dartmoor, Exmoor, Lake District, New Forest, North Yorkshire Moors, Northumberland, Peak District, South Downs and Yorkshire Dales.

Plans to make it easier for consumers to recycle packaging waste move a step closer today, as reporting requirements for Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) come into force.

Extended Producer Responsibility for Packaging (pEPR) will make firms that supply household packaging responsible for the costs of dealing with packaging waste, moving costs away councils and council taxpayers.

Producers will be required to pay for the collection and disposal costs of household packaging they supply when it becomes waste. This will encourage producers to reduce the amount of packaging they place on the market, and to improve the recyclability of their packaging – in turn ensuring less waste ends up in the natural environment.

From today, all obligated packaging producers in England, Northern Ireland and Scotland must collect information on the amount and type of packaging they have supplied during 2023. Wales will follow shortly.

Producers with a turnover of greater than £2 million and who handle more than 50 tonnes of packaging each year must also report this information to the Environment Agency twice a year.

The first reports must be submitted from 1 October 2023.

Environment Minister Rebecca Pow said:

We need to stem the flow of packaging which goes unrecycled and instead is lost forever to landfill and incineration.

As set out in our Environmental Improvement Plan, these reforms will encourage businesses to increase their use of recyclable materials, shifting costs away from the taxpayer and supporting our work to protect the environment from the scourge of waste.

Deep Sagar, chair of the Advisory Committee on Packaging, said:

Packaging materials that are not recycled back into new packaging harm our natural environment. Councils have to spend more managing that waste and the public cannot enjoy spaces such as parks and high streets as they should.

Extended Producer Responsibility will reduce that waste. It will make goods producers pay for collection of all packaging waste encouraging them to reduce or recycle more packaging. I look forward to supporting government and industry in making this smart policy work for the public and improving the environment.

Claire Shrewsbury, Director of Insights and Innovation at the Waste and Resources Action Programme, said:

The introduction of an EPR for packaging could be a game-changer. If done effectively, it could reduce the impact packaging has on the environment by regulating material use and increasing recycling.

For EPR to work it must serve all – producers, local and central government, recyclers, and the public. We’ve been working with these key groups since 2018 to help collaboration on pEPR.

In 2020, 12 million tonnes of packaging was placed on the UK market, some of which contains plastics that are hard to recycle. Incentivising producers to use better, more recyclable materials will help to stem this tide of waste.

Producers will be required to pay an EPR fee towards the costs of collecting and managing household packaging waste, currently borne by local authorities. This shift of cost is estimated to be around £1.2 billion per year across all local authorities, once EPR is fully operational.

Before decisions are made about the final shape of the scheme, we need to gather information from businesses that will be affected. This data will provide the basis for establishing the packaging waste management fees individual producers will pay in 2024, when pEPR comes into force.

We are engaging with businesses and local authorities to shape the future vision of waste reforms through industry-wide sprint events, deep dive sessions and fortnightly forums. This will help ensure business readiness for our planned reforms from 2024, ensuring industry are involved in shaping the long-term future of EPR.

These plans build on our wider efforts to eliminate avoidable plastic waste. Earlier this year we announced that a ban on single-use plastic plates, trays, bowls, cutlery, balloon sticks, expanded and extruded polystyrene food and drinks containers, including cups, will be introduced in England from October 2023.

We have also announced further details on the implementation of our Deposit Return Scheme for drinks containers to boost recycling and clamp down on plastic pollution and litter.

We have already introduced a ban on microbeads in rinse-off personal care products, restrictions on the supply of single-use plastic straws, drink stirrers and cotton buds, and our world-leading Plastic Packaging Tax introduced last year.

Meanwhile, our single-use plastic carrier bag charge has successfully cut sales by over 97% in the main supermarkets.

For further information, please see our specific guidance on collecting data for packaging EPR, along with our wider guidance for industry on GOV.UK.

Marine habitats and wildlife are set to receive the highest levels of protection as the Environment Secretary today (28 February) announces the Government will designate the first three Highly Protected Marine Areas in English waters.

Delivering on the commitments set out in the Environmental Improvement Plan, Highly Protected Marine Areas will enable nature to fully recover by removing all harmful activities including fishing, construction and dredging, increasing marine biodiversity and supporting climate-resilient ecosystems to thrive.

From safeguarding ‘blue carbon’ habitats to help tackle climate change; protecting the feeding and nursery grounds of commercially important fish species such as cod and herring; through to reversing the impacts of human activity on degraded marine ecosystems, the first three Highly Protected Marine Areas were chosen due to the ecological importance of nature recovery in the sites.

The three sites being taken forward will be designated before 6 July 2023 and are Allonby Bay (Irish Sea), Dolphin Head (Eastern Channel) and North East of Farnes Deep (Northern North Sea).

Environment Secretary Thérèse Coffey said:

Our comprehensive Environment Improvement Plan sets us on a path to deliver an improved marine environment and halt the decline in biodiversity which benefits us all.

Highly Protected Marine Areas are a vital step forward in enabling our ecosystems to thrive, increasing climate resilience and ensuring we have a healthy and productive marine environment for generations to come.

The first three Highly Protected Marine Areas include inshore and offshore sites and will complement the existing network of Marine Protected Areas covering 40% of English waters. Their introduction follows recommendations in the Benyon Review to help achieve clean, healthy, safe, productive, and biologically diverse ocean and seas, and drives forward the Government’s commitment to protect at least 30% of the global ocean by 2030.

Marine Minister Lord Benyon said:

This is a crucial next step to aid marine ecosystem recovery in our waters and I’m delighted to see my recommendations become a reality today.

Not only will the first of these Highly Protected Marine Areas protect important species and habitats, but they will propel the UK forward in our mission to protect at least 30% of the global ocean by 2030.

Allonby Bay contains ‘blue carbon’ habitats that capture and store carbon. The site also contains honeycomb reefs and blue mussel beds which can provide water purification and important protection from coastal erosion. Nursery and spawning habitats for a range of commercial species including cod, plaice, sole and herring will also be protected.

Dolphin Head has been degraded following impacts of human activity so the Highly Protected Marine Area presents an opportunity to fully recover habitats and species. It will help protect the feeding and nursery grounds of many important commercial fish species such as cod, herring, plaice as well as ecologically important habitats such as ross worm reefs.

North East of Farnes Deep has high levels of biodiversity. The large areas of muddy habitats are important for the storage of carbon as well as for a range of species including birds, marine mammals and fish. This includes spawning and nursery habitats for up to ten commercially important species such as angler fish, surmullet, whiting and haddock.

Natural England Chair Tony Juniper said:

The long term sustainability of our ocean and its ability to provide the essential ecosystem services that will help us meet the challenge of climate change, protect food security and sustain the coastal and marine economy is in part dependent on having the right protections in place.

The designation of the first three Highly Protected Marine Areas moves us towards this goal. I welcome this as a first step towards greater protection of our marine wildlife. I also look forward to working with government to identify additional areas where important marine habitats and species can benefit from the highest levels of protection.

The Government consulted on five pilot sites last year to gather a wide range of views and additional evidence to help inform which Highly Protected Marine Areas would be designated, receiving over 900 responses. After listening to the responses, and with further consideration of socio-economic impacts, two sites – Lindisfarne and Inner Silver Pit South – will not be taken forward to designation. Additional sites will now be explored and any future options will also be subject to consultation.

• Trees and improved woodland management are key in both adapting to climate change and reaching UK Government goal of Net Zero by 2050.
• New online Climate Change Hub centralises information on forestry and climate change adaptation.
• The Hub features UK Forestry Standard guidance and includes fact sheets, videos and case studies to ensure our woodlands are fit for the future

The Climate Change Hub – which centralises the latest resources, information and guidance on climate change adaptation to support landowners, woodland managers and forestry practitioners in addressing climate change threats – was launched by Defra, Forest Research, Scottish Forestry and Welsh Government today (Monday 20 February).

The projected rate of climate change is unprecedented, from warmer summers to more frequent extreme conditions such as drought periods and heavy rainfall events. Action is needed now to improve the resilience of forests and woodlands, and to protect the benefits that they provide, including carbon sequestration.

The Climate Change Hub, managed by Forest Research, centralises and distils the latest information and UKFS (United Kingdom Forestry Standard) guidance on climate change adaptation to encourage uptake of adaptive practice by forest and woodland owners and managers. It provides concise information about risks from the changing climate, how to identify suitable adaptation measures and examples of how other managers are implementing adaptive practice.

There is no single recommended approach to climate change adaptation, as each woodland has different objectives and conditions. To enable managers to make informed decisions for their own woodlands, the Climate Change Hub also includes detailed guidance through the decision-making process, step-by-step, including information about the online tools available to support risk management and species choice.

Forestry Minister Trudy Harrison said:

“Trees and tree management are crucial parts of our plan to reach Net Zero by 2050, and resources such as the Climate Change Hub support the forest industry to make better, more informed and ultimately more sustainable decisions when it comes to tree planting and woodland management.”

Forestry Commission Chief Executive Richard Stanford said:

“Climate change will affect our trees, wood and forests.  We need to ensure that our management practices ensure they thrive for the long term to ensure all the benefits they provide are maximised.  Trees are a critical part of our endeavours to tackle climate change; trees are the most efficient and cost-effective method of capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The Climate Change Hub will allow all of us to see this critical information in one place for the first time, enabling land managers and foresters to make the best decisions for our planet on tree and forest management.”

Scottish Forestry’s Chief Executive Dave Signorini said:

“I’m excited to launch the new Climate Change Hub – a one-stop shop for resources on protecting woodland and forests from the risks of climate change. Trees have a significant role in climate change adaptation and resilience, providing habitats for wildlife, reducing flooding, and absorbing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and we want to help people understand how best to achieve that.

“The new Climate Change Hub will help empower the forestry sector here in Scotland to sustainably manage woodland and forests to deliver benefits for our environment, economy and communities.”

Wales’ Minister for Climate Change, Julie James, said:

“This project will provide up-to-date research and guidance that will help the forestry sector and woodland planners plant and manage woodland in a flexible way.

“It’s another key project that will help us in Wales meet our Net Zero commitments and I look forward to seeing how it progresses.”

Woodland owners are encouraged to plant and manage more diverse and resilient woodlands of varying ages and species in the face of climate change. To counter future extreme weather risks from severe storms to drought, forests and woodlands should have a broad range of trees at different ages, from seedlings to trees to vary the size of our trees. Larger, more mature trees are more susceptible to severe winds than younger trees, so promoting the growth of trees of varying ages helps to strengthen their collective resilience.

The Climate Change Hub supports the government’s wider Net Zero strategy and follows commitments set out within the recently published Environmental Improvement Plan to improve our mitigation and adaptation to climate change.

• The Climate Change Hub can be found online here.
• The Climate Change Hub is endorsed by the Forestry and Climate Change Partnership (https://forestryclimatechange.uk/), a cross-sector body that seeks to represent a collective view of the forestry and woodland sector on climate adaptation of trees, woods and forests in England. It promotes measures which enhance the adaptation of trees, woods and forests to climate change and associated impacts. Members include the ICF, the Woodland Trust and Natural England.

Innovative training programmes to attract new recruits and improve the quality of training in the fishing, seafood and aquaculture sectors have been awarded funding today (Friday 10 February) from the £100million UK Seafood Fund.

Recognising industry concerns over an ageing fishing workforce and with the number of UK fishers having fallen by 1,700 over the past decade*, it is now more important than ever to ensure entrants are equipped with the necessary skills to join the sector and understand the opportunities that are available to them.

Coinciding with National Apprenticeship Week and supporting the Prime Minister’s priority to grow the economy and create better paid jobs, the seven projects include pilot courses at London’s famous Billingsgate market covering technical skills such as the delivery, preparation and cooking of seafood; practical qualifications for manning fishing boats in Cornwall; right through to training for school leavers in Scotland going into the seafood industry.

A degree and higher level skills offer for aspiring managers in the seafood industry will also be developed by University of Lincoln, whilst in Grimsby training courses will be run to attract local people into the seafood sector.

Fisheries Minister Mark Spencer said:

“Our seafood and fishing sectors are a fundamental part of the UK’s heritage as well as contributing to food security and our economy.

“The UK Government is funding opportunities from the quayside to the sales counter, suitable for young people as well as those changing careers.

“It is absolutely vital we invest in our workforce so these important industries prosper for generations to come.”

The projects awarded funding today will receive grants of up to £250,000 to fund the creation or redesign of pilot training courses, with over £1 million awarded overall. It comes as a second round of funding for skills and training is launched with up to £8 million made available to modernise training facilities and increase access to opportunities across the UK – applications are open until 12pm on 21 April.

The pilot training courses in the first round aim to enhance technical skills and increase knowledge on sustainability, and ensure a high quality of training for existing workers, new entrants and young people into the sector. They also promote seafood career opportunities, raise awareness of the sector amongst young people and schoolchildren, and address access barriers commonly faced by remote coastal communities.

Professor Val Braybrooks, Dean at the National Centre for Food Manufacturing, University of Lincoln, said:

‘’We are delighted to have been awarded funds to adapt our successful food manufacturing higher and degree apprenticeship offer and develop new provision to meet the skills needs of Seafood Processing businesses. The new programmes will support the development of aspiring leaders in our sustainability led and rapidly changing sector and we look forward to collaborating with businesses and partners across the UK to fuel the talent pipeline.

“We are indebted to members of the Seafood Grimsby and Humber Alliance (SGHA) for their support in informing our plans and we now look forward to working together with the sectors’ employers across the country, along with our educational partner the University of the Highlands and Islands in Shetland, to deliver this flagship skills scheme for the industry and unite our clusters and Seafood Processing communities through it’.”

Jane Lewis, Principal and Chief Executive of UHI Shetland, said:

“We are thrilled to have been successful with our bid to the UK Seafood Fund, which was prepared in close collaboration with UHI West Highland and our partners in the seafood sector.

“This project will be run through our new Centre for Sustainable Seafood and will act as a catalyst to help provide a sustainable workforce for a sustainable seafood sector. We are delighted that we can use this funding to continue to support the seafood sector, which is such a vital part of economy of the Highlands and Islands.

“Through our joint expertise in blended learning, we will also be able to widen access to reach potential students online no matter where they live.”

The £100 million UK Seafood Fund is a landmark government investment supporting the long-term future and sustainability of the UK fishing and seafood industry. Last month, the Government announced an initial £2 million investment to trial new, greener engines and help create a safer, more sustainable fishing fleet as part of the latest round of the infrastructure scheme.

In December last year, the Government also confirmed a further £30 million will be made available for infrastructure projects across the seafood supply chain. Businesses will have until March 2025 to deliver transformational projects that will upgrade ports, processing and aquaculture facilities so they are able to meet future demand while boosting jobs and economic growth.

Local authorities across England have been granted almost £11 million in the latest round of funding for projects that will improve air quality.

The money, from the Government’s annual Air Quality Grant, helps councils develop and implement measures to benefit schools, businesses and communities and reduce the impact of air pollution on people’s health.

This year’s grants total £10.7 million, with funding supporting programmes that will educate doctors, nurses and social care workers about air quality; electrify a diesel refuse collection vehicle and procure an electric road sweeper in Blaby, Leicestershire; and roll out monitoring sensors to make real-time air quality information available to the public in Lewisham, south London.

On Tyneside, a long-term campaign aimed at schools and pollution hotspots in residential areas will educate people of all ages about the dangers of air pollution, whilst an Air Quality Officer will be employed in Cornwall to visit schools.

Funding will also support an e-cargo bike library, helping local businesses in Norfolk to cut operating costs while lowering their emissions; and the implementation of a river freight scheme in Westminster which will serve as a greener alternative to the use of more polluting vehicles in the city.

Environment Minister Rebecca Pow said:

We have made great strides in tackling air pollution at a national level since 2010, but we must do more to improve air quality and protect public health.

From Tyneside to Cornwall, this funding will support a range of inspiring and innovative projects across the country – stepping up our monitoring of harmful pollutants, educating the public and boosting the use of green transport.

This builds on our world-leading Environment Act commitments that will enhance our natural environment and safeguard public health for future generations.

The government is taking decisive action to cut air pollution. Through the Environment Act, the government has set two legally-binding targets to reduce the level of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) – the most harmful pollutant to human health – in our air by 2040.

The Environmental Improvement Plan – published last week to build on the vision set out in the government’s 25 Year Environment Plan – set out interim targets to reduce concentrations of, and reduce public exposure to, PM2.5 by the end of January 2028, alongside a range of policies to work towards these targets.

The Plan also committed to challenging councils to improve air quality more quickly by assessing their performance and use of existing powers, while supporting them with clear guidance, funding and tools. Moreover, it pledged to improve the way air quality information is communicated with the public. Today’s announcement demonstrates key steps forward in the delivery of these commitments.

This latest grant funding means that around £53 million has been awarded across almost 500 projects through the Air Quality Grant scheme since 2010.

£883 million has been made available as part of the government’s NO2 Plan to support local authorities in cleaning up transport and cutting levels of nitrogen dioxide down to legal levels in the shortest possible time. More widely, the government has already spent over £2 billion to support the move to zero emission vehicles, helping drive forward the decarbonisation of the UK’s entire transport system. Funding is available from the Department for Transport for local authorities, as well as businesses, charities, private rental accommodation, flats and social housing with off-street parking spaces, to install electric vehicle charge-points and infrastructure. These actions will deliver better air quality for all.

Together, these projects have contributed to the significant improvement in air quality seen in the UK in recent decades. Since 2010, emissions of fine particulate matter have fallen by 18%, while emissions of nitrogen oxides have fallen by 44% and sulphur dioxide by 70%.

Local authority	Project	Amount
Bedford Borough Council	Review of local smoke control areas and solid fuel regulations to determine improvements, and public engagement to raise awareness about particulate matter.	£36,332
Bedford Borough Council	Engagement with local schools, community and faith groups, and strengthen links with Primary Care Networks to encourage reduced vehicle use through active and sustainable travel.	£113,071
Blaby District Council	Conversion of diesel refuse collection vehicle to electric and purchase of electric road sweeper to reduce emissions from refuse collection.	£573,701
Bournemouth, Christchurch, and Poole Council	Engagement with schools to encourage active and sustainable travel. Purchase of e-cargo bikes to replace diesel powered delivery freight on the sea front.	£120,309
Buckinghamshire Council	Driver improvement training to reduce emissions and travel planning scheme for local small to medium size businesses to develop sustainable travel to work plans for employees.	£120,000
City of York	Awareness raising campaign for domestic burning to increase public knowledge about air quality and development of a public air pollution forecasting alert system.	£101,375
Colchester Borough Council	Promotion of sustainable freight such as e-cargo bikes to local businesses. Air quality awareness, active and sustainable travel, and anti-idling campaign in schools. Community cycle scheme.	£310,770
Cornwall Council	Employment of a school air quality officer to provide an air quality awareness programme to over 3000 students.	£62,160
Derbyshire County Council	Data collection to develop and deliver a traffic management plan that will reduce congestion and improve traffic flow across Derbyshire.	£278,347
East Herts Council	Purchase of air quality monitors to improve data for pollution in Air Quality Management Areas. Development of a social media campaign for these areas to improve knowledge about air quality and encourage reduced car use through car sharing and active travel. Engagement and awareness raising in local schools to reduce idling and encourage active travel. Creation of travel plans for local businesses.	£126,408
Exeter City Council	Development of a public facing air quality map for NO2 and particulate matter that will highlight health implications of air quality, ways to limit exposure, and ways to decrease individual’s air pollution footprint.	£367,428
Lancaster City Council Air Quality	Encourage take up of electric taxis through behaviour and awareness campaign and a discounted leasing scheme. Development of local taxi policy which will support the uptake of electric vehicles	4£54,576
Lincolnshire County Council (In partnership with councils for City of Lincoln, South Kesteven District, North Kesteven District, Boston Borough, East Lindsey District, West Lindsey District, and South Holland District).	School education and awareness programme. Community engagement campaign and development of a dedicated Lincolnshire Clean Air Project website to raise public awareness of air quality and steps they can take to reduce pollution.	£58,180
London Borough of Brent	Creation of low pollution walking maps for all schools in the borough. Education and awareness campaign in schools to raise awareness about air quality and encourage walking and active travel.	£470,546
London Borough of Camden	School engagement and awareness programme to reduce transport emissions and children’s exposure to pollution. Creation of an Air Quality Health toolkit, and awareness raising campaign in the borough.	£170,645
London Borough of Enfield	Air quality monitoring at participating local schools to develop knowledge and awareness, improve safety outside schools, reduce idling, and encourage sustainable and active travel. Increased school cycle storage. Engagement with the local community to raise awareness about the school project.	£223,500
London Borough of Havering	School workshop and theatre engagement programme to improve knowledge and awareness about air quality, develop clean air route maps, and reduce emissions particularly from idling. Training of teachers to deliver cycling lessons to pupils. Engagement with local businesses to analyse and improve commuter behaviour and develop information that could inform future interventions to improve air quality.	£65,127
London Borough of Havering	Guided cycle and walking routes for schools to encourage active travel and reduce children’s exposure to pollution when travelling to and from school. Development of a travel plan for the local hospital to reduce NO2 emissions from staff and patient travel.	£35,139
London Borough of Islington	Engagement and awareness campaign to improve knowledge of NO2 and particulate matter pollution supported by air quality data gathered by school pupils, community groups and residents. Development of council website to collate live and historic air quality and transport data accessible to the public.	£282,680
London Borough of Lewisham	Improvement of air quality sensor network to improve data and understanding about NO2 and particulate matter to develop targeted interventions to reduce pollution.	£248,021
London Borough of Redbridge	Community engagement and outreach plan to improve knowledge and information about air quality with a focus on children and vulnerable groups. Development of an interactive air quality map using data gathered by the community. Cycle training for pupils and parents, plus extra school cycle storage.	£323,774
London Borough of Hammersmith & Fulham	Promotion of cargo bikes to businesses to encourage shared use cargo bikes and funding to support purchase of their own bike.	£277,950
Maldon District Council	Development of plans to re-route Heavy Goods Vehicles to improve air quality in a pollution hotspot. Development of a voluntary low emissions zone in Maldon town centre. Introduction of air quality forecasting and text alert service to improve public knowledge and access to air quality information.	£129,000
Medway Council- Environmental Protection Team	Real time traffic monitoring and data modelling to develop traffic management interventions that will reduce air pollution.	£279,533
Norfolk County Council	E-cargo bike library for local businesses to promote and facilitate alternatives to private vehicle use.	£171,545
Oxford City Council	Installation of electric charging infrastructure for live-aboard boaters, with the aim to reduce particulate matter and smoke pollution along Oxford’s waterways.	£192,993
Reading Borough Council	Interactive education programme in primary and secondary schools to raise awareness about air quality and encourage behaviour change to reduce NO2 and particulate matter pollution supported by air quality data gathered by pupils. This material will be developed for a wider community engagement campaign focusing on children and vulnerable groups.	£327,000
South Ribble Borough Council	Access for additional schools to the established ‘Clean Air Crew’ website and online learning resources to support air quality education in schools.	£53,244
South Tyneside Council	Purchase of sensors for long term monitoring of NO2, PM10, and PM2.5. Real time data will be collated and published on a public website and supported by a media campaign to raise public awareness and knowledge about air quality and encourage action to prevent pollution and improve air quality.	£201,005
Southampton City Council	Training of healthcare professionals so they can advise vulnerable patients about air quality and action they can take to reduce pollution and their exposure to it. Development of community air quality engagement programme to consolidate existing projects for woodburning, schools and healthcare into a single co-ordinated programme to deliver unified air quality information and messaging.	£248,198
Southend-on-Sea Borough Council	Air quality audit and sensor monitoring in 10 local schools to develop knowledge about local pollution to improve knowledge and develop interventions that will improve air quality and reduce pupil exposure to pollution.	£256,285
St Helens Borough Council	Improve air quality for residents with asthma through monitoring indoor air quality, raising awareness about the impact of air quality on health, and advising on interventions to reduce pollution and exposure levels.	£405,227
Surrey Heath Borough Council	Purchase of portable device to monitor PM2.5 and development content for an air quality website to share data to raise awareness and advise on interventions to reduce pollution and exposure levels.	£12,280
Swindon Borough Council	Road traffic management signage to influence driver behaviour to reduce NO2 pollution. Engagement and awareness campaign with schools and community groups to encourage active travel. Collaboration with Public and Environmental Health to encourage improved domestic burning behaviour.	£148,902
Telford and Wrekin Council	Monitoring, and engagement and awareness raising in local schools to reduce idling, encourage sustainable and active travel for pupils and their families. Replace Environmental Health Team diesel vehicle with electric vehicle for conducting air quality monitoring surveys, school visits and promotional activities.	£147,615
Tunbridge Wells Council	Develop a digital training resource for Health Care Practitioners across Kent and Medway to enable practitioners to advise patients with cardio-vascular disease or respiratory disease on how to reduce their exposure to air pollution.	£175,675
West Midlands Combined Authority	Particulate Matter monitoring and engagement programme to increase awareness and encourage behaviour change towards domestic burning across the region.	£918,531
West Northamptonshire Council	Particulate Matter monitoring programme to improve data on background particulate matter across the county, gather data on the prevalence of solid fuel combustion in domestic properties to develop interventions to improve domestic burning behaviour. Review of Smoke Control Areas for the recently formed unitary council.	£292,378
West Yorkshire Combined Authority	Particulate matter monitoring and engagement programme to increase awareness and encourage behaviour change around domestic burning across the region.	£220,457
Westminster City Council	Development of a Clean Air Walking route tool to support users in reducing their exposure to air pollution in central London.	£72,521
Westminster City Council	Reduce NO2 by supporting a network of Mini-Freight Hubs in central London that are serviced by river freight and Zero Emission Last Mile Deliveries.	£1,000,000
Wirral Borough Council	Particulate matter monitoring and engagement programme to increase awareness, encourage behaviour change around domestic burning, advise residents how they can reduce their exposure, and review local enforcement of legislation.	£171,200
Wokingham Borough Council	Engagement and awareness campaign with 6 schools to reduce pollution by reducing reliance on cars and encouraging active and sustainable travel.	£213,332
Worcestershire Regulatory Services	Enhancement of air quality monitoring across Worcester to provide real time data that can be used to drive local air quality policy, disseminate public health information and alerts about poor air quality episodes, and advise the public on interventions to reduce pollution and exposure levels.	£248,400