Gove says new clean-air strategy will hit diesel

DIESEL drivers face a new crackdown in order to improve air quality because ministers have been “too slow to act on what is a major public health scandal”, Michael Gove has admitted.

The Environment Secretary told a conference in central London that a major clean-air strategy will be published by the end of May.

He says: “We’ve been too slow to act on what is a major public health scandal.

“We’ll be saying more in coming weeks, but we all know that we have to do more to restrict diesel use, to protect urban centres from pollution, to change how some of us heat our homes and we also need to reform aspects of agriculture and industry to ensure our air is properly breathable.”