Illegal air pollution will blight many UK cities for at least five years

Government plan to improve air quality will still leave people in dozens of cities, including London, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Cardiff and Edinburgh, breathing toxic air until at least 2020

Dozens of UK cities including London, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Cardiff and Edinburgh will still be in breach of EU limits on air pollution for at least the next five years, despite an air quality action plan issued by the government on Thursday.

The plan is a response to a supreme court ruling in April on the government's failure to meet European limits of harmful NOx gases, which are mostly caused by diesel traffic and blamed for nearly 9,500 premature deaths each year in London alone.