The Great Smog of December 1952 killed several thousand Londoners and the Beaver Committee of 1954 blamed domestic coal fires as much as industry. The Act let local authorities declare smoke control areas in which only authorised smokeless fuels could be burnt, offered grants towards converting grates and appliances, banned dark smoke from chimneys and gave authorities power over new furnaces, grit emission and chimney heights. It was strengthened by the Clean Air Act 1968 and consolidated in 1993.
It was the first statute to treat urban air as a matter of building and land-use regulation, and it changed the fabric of British cities house by house as millions of grates were converted to gas, electricity and district heat. The smoke control area established the idea of a mapped zone with its own emission rules, later reused in low-emission zones, congestion charging and EU air-quality management.
See it on the timeline →