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19 July 2013 - Air pollution in Putney High Street Rt Hon Justine Greening MP Putney, Roehampton & Southfields House of Commons London SW1A 0AA

Dear Mr Tingle

Thank you for your email about air pollution in Putney High Street.

As a local resident myself, I fully understand residents’ concerns about the level of air pollution in Putney High Street, particularly those who live in the roads nearby. The pollution does need to be tackled and I am working closely with the Mayor of London and Wandsworth Council on this. Putting measures in place to reduce pollution from vehicles is a policy area I did a lot of work on in my previous role as Secretary of State for Transport, and that work is continuing under Patrick McLoughlin MP.

The Government’s work on ultra-low emission vehicles, the Local Sustainable Transport Fund and the Green Bus Fund are all helping to reduce air pollution from transport. The Government also provided an extra £10 million of targeted funding in 2011 to improve air quality in London, including a programme to retrofit buses with pollution reducing technology.

Locally, Wandsworth Council has carried out detailed monitoring of air pollution and is taking action to improve air quality by working with local businesses and Transport for London to reduce local pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide.

The main source of pollution in the high street is traffic and particularly buses. That’s why I have been working hard with Richard Tracey, our London Assembly Member, to press TfL to introduce low emission buses on the routes that serve Putney High Street. Transport for London has now replaced 46 buses that serve Putney High Street with newer greener and hybrid buses, and has started retrofitting 85 buses with pollution reducing equipment that will reduce emissions by 70%. More low emission buses are planned to be introduced in June 2013.  This is great news for Putney and will help improve air quality.

We are also seeing the new London bus being rolled out across the city under Boris Johnson’s mayoralty. This bus uses the latest green diesel-electric hybrid technology and produces around half the carbon dioxide and a quarter of the particulate matter and nitrogen oxides of conventional diesel buses and is more fuel efficient. The roll out will see more than 600 new buses in service by 2016.

The Mayor has also introduced a new £20 million Mayor’s Air Quality Fund to support London boroughs in tackling local air quality hotspots like Putney High Street. Wandsworth Council are in the process of developing their bid which I fully support. I am also meeting with the Mayor and the Leader of Wandsworth Council, Ravi Govindia, soon to see what more can be done locally.

I hope this is a helpful update and once again, thank you for taking the time to contact me.

Yours sincerely

Rt Hon Justine Greening MP