How we manage air quality in the city

Find out what we're doing to improve air quality in Brighton & Hove and view our local air quality reports

How we report on air quality

Each year we send Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) an update on local air quality.

The most recent report on local air quality is our 2025 Air Quality Annual Status Report (ASR)

You can also view and download archived reports.

To complement the latest ASR for a regional picture of particles and ozone you can read the  Sussex-Annual-Air-Quality-Monitoring-Report April 2025.pdf.

Real-time air quality information

Launched in October 2024, the Brighton & Hove and Sussex Real-Time Air Quality Portal provides up-to-date information on air quality.

There are 50 sensors placed in various locations across Sussex, including 40 in Brighton & Hove, which:

  • measure nitric oxide, nitrogen dioxide, ozone and particulate matter
  • provide ambient measurements for temperature, pressure and relative humidity

Funded by a Defra air quality grant and the council’s Carbon Neutral Fund, the real-time sensors have been placed in a variety of locations to measure air quality in different environments.

The locations include:

  • local parks and the South Downs National Park
  • hill slopes and valley bottoms for comparison
  • outer areas, suburban and centrally located schools with or without school street schemes or other active travel initiatives
  • roadside on:
    • local A roads, B roads, and C roads
    • strategic trunk roads (A27 and A23)
  • Brighton & Hove city centre
  • near Shoreham and Newhaven ports
  • construction sites and potential development areas
  • an industrial site in West Sussex (Horsham)
  • 12 Air Quality Management Areas (known as AQMAs), including 6 in Brighton & Hove and one in Newhaven

Air Quality Action Plan (AQAP)

The consultation on our draft AQAP has closed. Following public consultation the final report was approved by ETS committee on 15 November 2022. It included an amendment not to change the city's smoke control areas at this time.

This latest Air Quality Action Plan (2022 to 2027) has been produced as part of our statutory duties under the Environment Act 1995, as required by the Local Air Quality Management (LAQM) framework.

Where an area is identified as at risk of non-compliance with legal limits of Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2), an Air Quality Action Plan is required.

Whilst we want to improve air quality citywide our legal requirement is to prioritise improvement in 6 Air Quality Management Areas (AQMAs). These were declared by the council in 2020, because monitoring and modelling showed a risk of non-compliance with toxic NO2 and therefore a risk to public health.

The plan includes evidence which identifies sources of emissions (gases and smoke) that impact most on life in the city. It outlines actions and priorities to improve air quality which will not only benefit residents and visitors to the city but also the wider Sussex region.

Progress on measures set out within this plan will be reported within the council’s annual status reports, including table 2.2 published July 2025.

Air quality management areas

Designated areas where the levels of pollution are too high and do not comply with health standards are called Air Quality Management Areas or AQMAs. The 2020 Detailed Assessment sets out technical justification for declaration of 2020 AQMAs.

Download the legal air quality management areas order for more information.  

How we're reducing pollution from transport

Find out what we're doing to reduce reliance on diesel and petrol vehicles through active travel on our how we support active and sustainable travel in the city page.

Use the Brighton & Hove Cycle Map to find a route you want to cycle, landmarks, cycle parking, light controlled crossings and cycle retail and repair places.

Read about new cycle lanes at Valley Gardens Phase 3 overview and A259 Hove to Portslade active travel scheme.

Brighton & Hove has a successful track record of winning grants to fund projects to reduce emissions, raise awareness and improve air quality. To help deliver sustainable public transport, funding has allowed the most frequent local buses to be retrofitted with cleaner exhausts. This has helped meet the requirements of the city’s bus ultra-low emission zone. Bus operators continue to procure new buses including zero emission capable hybrids in service since 2018 and 2019.

From early 2026 Zero Emission Bus Reginal Area will further electrify local bus routes such as route 7 passing though AQMA1. This is to be followed up with More electric buses to be added to the city’s fleet in 2026. 

Find more information on our bus ULEZ and beyond page.

A huge expansion of electric vehicle charging points is to be connected from 2025 to 2040. This will help to facilitate substantial reductions in oxides of nitrogen emissions and particles from diesel and petrol taxis, cars and vans. Further investment in sub-stations will allow organised events to plug-in and avoid fixed diesel generators. The aim of red routes is to tackle vehicle obstructions and keep traffic in the city moving including key AQMA1 travel corridors. In 2024, idling enforcement was launched in the city.

How we're reducing pollution from buildings

Our aim is that new developments will be a positive improvement for local air quality. Mixed use development reduce the need to travel. City Plan development areas are well placed to connect with active travel networks and public transport.

Construction Environment Management Plans set out stricter emission standards for heavy and light vehicles and non-road mobile machinery. A number of completed city centre developments produce fewer vehicle trips than the previous planning use. It is now common place for renewable and electric developments to operate without combustion processes, fireplaces or boilers. This is a good way to avoid harmful emission where population density is highest. In the neighbourhood of tall residential buildings it is strongly recommended households do not burn waste, wood or coal to keep warm during the winter. 

Find more information about the health risks of solid fuel burning.

Regulatory Services

Environmental health respond to complaints about smoke and dust. Trading standards have checked retailers to ensure illegal fuels such as traditional house coal and wet wood are not sold in the city. We encourage Sussex to do the same. Small industrial processes such as the crematorium are permitted with conditions that limit their emission to air.

Air quality monitoring and awareness raising

Funding for air quality assessment, including monitoring has allowed for new asset connections during 2024 to 2025. New automatic analysers and sensors will supply data to future Annual Status Reports (ASRs). Real-time information stream and long term trends will raise awareness of the health risks of pollution and the benefits of electrification, cleaner travel and buildings.

Partnership working

An elected mayor from May 2026 with unitary authorities across Sussex will help support partnership working to progress air quality assessment and pathways to zero emissions to deliver cleaner air regionally and locally.

The following services will continue to work together to progress these aims:

  • Transport
  • Net Zero
  • Finance
  • Education
  • Regulatory Services
  • Public Health
  • Communications

This autumn Brighton will host the Sussex Air Quality conference organised by the Sussex Air Partnership. It will take place on 9 October at the University of Sussex campus in Falmer.

Experts from the worlds of academia, the NHS and Public Health will provide insight into air pollution and examples of projects helping to combat its health effects.  The conference is free and open to all.

Whether you work in a related field or are interested in the topic, this event is for anyone looking to learn more about the impact of air pollution on our physical health, our environment and climate change.

Find more information and book your ticket on Eventbrite.