Government environment statistics positive for all regions, except London

The Government’s Regional Sustainable Development Indicators for England, published last Thursday, revealed that every region in England improved during the last decade. With very few exceptions, every region is moving with the national trends.

The top recyclers of household waste were the east of England. The West Midlands came out best for recycling construction, demolition, industrial, commercial and municipal waste.

The north-east had the lowest percentage of waste recycled – but nevertheless has seen a huge increase in the amount being recycled. The north west was found to produce the highest amount of household waste per person.

For the first time ever, the statistics also included figures for environmental quality and well-being, which were based on surveys asking respondents to rate their overall life satisfaction.

Average life satisfaction was rated at 7.3 out of 10. The south west had the highest level of well being, with 7.5 out of 10, whilst London had the lowest, with 6.9 out of 10.

It was also found that the quality of the environment in the most deprived areas of London is far worse than in affluent areas of the capital. More than two in three of those living in deprived areas experienced at least three highly unfavorable environment conditions such as flooding, air pollution or lack of access to green space.

This is compared to just 1% of those in affluent areas of London, and just 1-2% of those living in the most deprived areas of the north east.