New London-wide campaign targets engine idling to improve air quality and health
Hackney joins with others London boroughs in campaign to tackle air pollution from engine idling.
Hackney Council is pleased to be joining with other London boroughs again in the ‘Engine Off, Every Stop’ campaign, to tackle air pollution from engine idling. Its central message to London’s drivers: Engine idling damages your health and the health of those around you.
The ‘Engine Off, Every Stop’ campaign is part of the Idling Action London project, delivered with funding from the Mayor of London’s Air Quality Fund. The project aims to tackle avoidable engine idling, a significant contributor to local air pollution and climate change
“We all want to breathe clean air. We’re working with councils across London to remind all drivers to switch off our engines when we stop. We don’t need to leave our engines idling.
"Engine idling represents a largely avoidable source of air pollution in London. The campaign aims to improve public awareness of the avoidable dangers to health caused by idling petrol and diesel vehicles and encourages drivers to turn off their engines when parked to cut air pollution. The campaign highlights that air pollution is an “invisible killer” and is dangerous for all Londoners.
"Hackney has recently been updating and consulting on its revised Air Quality Action Plan, to set out the measures we will take over the next 5 years to improve air quality. Raising awareness about the harm to health caused through engine idling is one of the measures which we will be delivering. Air pollution doesn’t take account of borough boundaries. Hackney’s participation in the awareness campaign by the idling Action London project can really help to spread the message to drivers of motor vehicles beyond Hackney so has the potential to bring about significant changes in driver behaviour.”
Councillor Sarah Young, Cabinet Member for Climate Change, Environment and Transport at Hackney
Impacts of Idling on public health
While drivers of some vehicles like ambulances and waste collection vehicles cannot operate without leaving their engines on, all other non-exempt vehicles must not be left idling, and the drivers of these vehicles are the focus of the campaign.
Idling vehicles emit pollutants including nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and fine particulate matter (PM2.5), which are linked to asthma, heart disease, chronic bronchitis and cancer. People with respiratory conditions, the elderly, pregnant women and children are particularly vulnerable.
Outdoor air pollution in the UK has significantly reduced in recent years, and most places in London are now compliant with the legal limits for NO2 and PM2.5. However, research shows that there are no safe levels of exposure to air pollution. The RCP’s recent 2025 update report ‘A breath of fresh air: responding to the health challenges of modern air pollution’ estimates that about 30,000 lives will be lost to air pollution in 2025. It is estimated that every year more than 4,000 Londoners die prematurely from long-term exposure to air pollution. The RCP also estimated that the cost of healthcare, productivity losses and reduced quality of life due to air pollution cost the UK more than £27 billion and potentially as much as £50 billion if including wider impacts such as dementia.
This means that it is essential that we continue to reduce pollution from all sources to protect public health and reduce the financial burden on society.
‘Engine Off, Every Stop’ conveys a simple message: simply switching off the engine of a parked vehicle will make an immediate contribution to reducing exposure to harmful exhaust air pollution.
The campaign, which is expected to reach millions of people across the capital, will ultimately play a part in driving down idling hot-spots and the pollution created by vehicles in London.
Further information
This round of the Idling Action London project (April 2024- March 2027) is funded by the Mayor of London’s Air Quality Grant Fund and is jointly led by the London Borough of Camden and the London Borough of Hounslow on behalf of 21 London local authorities. The public campaign which commenced in January 2025 has already achieved over 60 million combined impressions across radio, online and other out-of-home platforms. The campaign will be revamped for winter 2025 starting in November.