Mayor of London office among speakers at air quality conference

Ongoing efforts to improve air quality in London were among the talking points at a conference for environmental health professionals.

The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) Air Quality Conference saw a wide range of speakers and discussions on the issues around air quality, a critical area of work for the profession in helping to improve the environment, public health and wellbeing.

Kicking off the conference was George O’Ferrall, from the Greater London Authority, who spoke about the Mayor of London’s commitment to improving air quality in the capital, and particularly its introduction of an Air Quality Positive (AQP) approach for all large-scale developments subject to an Environmental Impact Assessment.

Mr O’Ferrall said the aim of AQP is to leverage the capabilities of developers, architects and consultants to maximise the potential of their development to deliver air quality benefits for the area – limiting emissions and exposure.

Since 2021 AQP has been used to assess dozens of the largest developments in London and although developers took time to adjust to the approach, they are now much more aware with the Authority now seeing some promising AQP statements and several innovative measures have been proposed as a result of the guidance.

Other speakers during the event included Sarah Legge, Associate Director at Arup, who spoke about her role as Task Group Chair at EPIC – the Environmental Policy Implementation Community at the Institution of Environmental Sciences - and its guidance for local authorities around air quality and climate change.

Paul Agnew, Science Manager, Air Quality and Composition, at the Met Office spoke to delegates about the air pollution modelling and tools available to them from the Met Office, including the Air Quality Data Portal.

Work in the West Midlands to apply environmental science expertise to deliver regional impact in support of improved air quality and health across the region was covered in an illuminating presentation by William Bloss, Professor of Atmospheric Science, University of Birmingham.

His presentation included insights on the impact of the introduction of Low Traffic Neighbourhoods and Clean Air Zones in Birmingham.

There were also talks on reducing the impact of episodic air pollution on public health by Dr Simon Griffiths, Chartered Environmental Health Practitioner and Assistant Professor at Northumbria University, as well as Ruth Westcott from Sustain, the alliance for better food and farming, on air quality and the new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).

Somayya Yaqub, CIEH Environmental Protection Policy Advisory Panel member and Head of Corporate Health and Safety, London Borough of Ealing, chaired the conference.

She said: “Air quality continues to be a critically important subject for all environmental health professionals and this conference provided all those in attendance with illuminating presentations and discussions to take back to their day-to-day roles.

“I would like to thank the speakers for giving their time and providing us with such informative and engaging sessions and all those in attendance for making our 2025 Air Quality Conference a great success.”

For more information about CIEH membership and events visit www.cieh.org