A damning report on air-pollution strategy in the UK has revealed that the local authorities with the worst air pollution are doing little or nothing to address the problem.

The report, which was conducted by the National Non-Food Crop Centre, experts in conversion of biomass into energy solutions, found that 90 per cent of cars currently owned by the UK’s local authorities have combustion engines.

Of the 82 councils with the worst air quality in the UK, not a single one bought, rented or placed an order for an electric vehicle, leading to contradictory messages when 32 of those are London Boroughs which actively penalise private owners of diesel cars, with the congestion charges and increased costs of parking. The problem does not appear to be a historical issue either, with 88 per cent of cars ordered in the last year being run on fossil fuels.

Nic Dakin, the chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for British Bioethanol, said: 'These figures do call into question the Government's commitment to cutting transport emissions.

'Local authorities need support from Government to make the changes necessary to protect public health and tackle the serious threat of climate change.

'If this Government isn't serious about reducing CO2, why should they expect the average motorist to be?

'It is clear that despite all the efforts made to incentivise electric vehicles, fossil-fuelled vehicles will remain on our roads for decades to come and we need to be thinking about how to decarbonise and lower their emissions during that time.'

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