Pollution - Is Your Home Value and Health Affected?
Website identifies SW15 properties that exceed the WHO's annual legal limit
Which level is yours?
Putney High Street, has over the years suffered the label of most polluted high Street in London (shared with Brixton) and residents can now check if the pollution level at their property if affecting their health and the value of the property.
Yesterday (17th September), saw the launch of a new citizen-funded initiative by the Central Office for Public Interest (COPI) in partnership with Kings College London to tackle inaction on air pollution in the capital. The new Air Quality Rating (AQR) tool at AddressPollution.org will say the developers, for the first time, clearly and accurately bring to life the level of air pollution for an address.
Levels in the SW15 area
This tool will reveal the heavy health and financial costs of air pollution and also show that average house prices across the city could plummet, following findings that 76% of Londoners believe that discounts should apply to properties in areas that breach legal limits for air pollution. The developers believe that there is a strong legal argument that estate agents will have to start using the system immediately.
Local estate agent Allan Fuller commented: "All aspects of the environment are making the news headed by the dramatic climate changes that are taking place all around the world. For far to long cities have been major polluters. It is remembered by older Londoners that at times in the 1950s thick acrid yellow fog reduced visibility to just a few yards. Government was forced, as it so often is, to take action and the Clean Air Act in 1956 made vast changes, such as banning coal fires.
"Now we suffer from far less visible pollution which is perhaps why in my experience we hardly ever get questions about locations where levels of pollution are high. There are those who do not want to live on main roads, but this is usually a noise factor. I do think however that with greater knowledge of pollution levels, and its effect on health and our environment generally then it will certainly play a part in peoples decision of when to live".
September 20, 2019