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Concerned parents urge the government to prioritise investment in clean air policies in the upcoming budget as thousands of children attend hospital with breathing difficulties.
More than 200,000 children across England were taken to hospital with breathing difficulties last year.
Concerned parents are renewing calls for Labour to introduce a legal right to clean air after the party dropped the idea from its final election manifesto two years ago.
The data, obtained through FOI requests to 34 NHS hospital trusts across 11 cities and regions by charity Mums for Lungs, show the scale of the burden respiratory illness is placing on the NHS, the organisation says. The charity discovered that in 2025, 213,341 children attended A&E or were admitted to hospital with breathing difficulties, with London unsurprisingly having the highest number, at 115,357, followed by Greater Manchester with 20,863 and Birmingham with 17,465.
The other cities and regions covered in the FOI request were Liverpool, Sheffield, Derby, Southampton, Nottinghamshire, Bristol, St Albans and Sandwell and West Birmingham.
Babies and toddlers accounted for 57% of visits, and for families the figures represent frightening episodes of children struggling to breathe, Mums for Lungs said.
Last week, Greater London, Glasgow and Bristol were declared to have been illegally polluted in 2025 by the department for environment, food and rural affairs.
Dan Cromb, resident paediatric doctor in Lambeth and President of the Royal Society of Medicine’s Paediatric & Child Health Section, London, said he regularly sees children struggling to breathe. “Air pollution can make respiratory conditions worse and contributes to the burden already being placed on families and NHS services,” he argued.
The upcoming budget is an opportunity for the government to prioritise clean air and active travel, he added.
Action needed on pollution
Alba De Toro Nozal, a member of Mums for Lungs whose nine-year-old son has experienced breathing problems since he was a baby, agreed, going on: “We can’t control the air our children breathe when they walk to school or play outside. That is why we need the government to use the budget to invest in cleaner air.”
In 2023, then shadow justice secretary Steve Reed said Labour would explore plans to make clean air a human right with new legislation, and Mums for Lungs wants to see this back on the table and initiatives to bring down pollution across the country.
The group wants to see enforceable pathways towards meeting World Health Organization air-quality guidelines and practical measures to reduce traffic pollution, particularly around schools. The parents also want to see action to reduce non-essential domestic wood burning.
In February 2013, nine-year-old Ella Kissi-Debrah died after an acute asthma attack in south London, having had more than 25 emergency hospital admissions in the previous three years. Ella became the first person in the world to have air pollution listed as a cause of death.
A proposed private member’s bill to establish the right to breathe clean air, known as Ella’s Law and sponsored by Green MP Siân Berry, received its first reading in July 2025. Backed by Ella’s mother, the bill is yet to have its second reading.
The government has previously said it is taking action to tackle air pollution across the country and is working with local authorities to cut harmful emissions. However, campaigners argue the funds given to local governments for this purpose have fallen in the last five years.
