Tackling Environmental Inequalities

While the overall quality of our environment may be improving, the quality of the environment can vary between different areas and communities.  People who are socially and economically disadvantaged often live in the worst environments.

For example:

• UK Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities are more likely to be living in fuel poverty than other sections of society
• Asian children are involved in up to twice as many pedestrian accidents than the national average
• There are eight times more people in the most deprived 10% of the population living in tidal floodplains than the least deprived 10%

Environmental justice addresses access to environmental goods – such as clean air, green space and energy efficient housing.

Building on our previous report produced in 2004 ( PDF (1.31 MB) ), our recent work has focussed on supporting people to tackle issues of Environmental Justice in their local areas in partnership with Mapping for Change and UCL.

Examples have included training community ambassadors on the Marks Gate estate in Barking and Dagenham to map the concerns of local residents, and on the Pepys estate in Lewisham to measure noise levels from a local scrapyard and present their findings to the Environment Agency and the borough council.

We have also produced a toolkit to help policy makers and planners take up good practice with regard to Environmental Justice in their decision making.

THE TOOLKIT

Environmental Justice and Inequalities Toolkit for Policy Makers

Project Supported by
Trust for London (previously called City Parochial Foundation) and Homes & Communities Agency

Photograph by Paula Smith