Zane’s Law is vital to fixing our broken contaminated land and waste system

The housing sector has rightly spoken out about the issues relating to damp and mould that caused the tragic death of Awaab Ishak, and the shockwaves led to Awaab’s Law, a turning point for safer housing. Contaminated land and its catastrophic impact on people, and children, has also reached its long overdue turning point.

Nicole and I have used our horrific experience to campaign for change. Zane’s Law is set to fix our broken waste system as it relates to contaminated land and related water. People must be protected, and the law must change.

“There is massive and growing public concern about contamination, lack of enforcement, obfuscation, delays, accountability and ensuing impacts on people’s daily lives, health and confidence in public bodies”

There is massive and growing public concern about contamination, lack of enforcement, obfuscation, delays, accountability, and ensuing impacts on people’s daily lives, health and confidence in public bodies. It is beyond disappointing that institutions too often choose to protect themselves, rather than the public they serve: the infected blood scandal, Grenfell, the Post Office scandal and the Hillsborough tragedy, to name a few. 

Now, the TUC and all Britain’s great unions are backing our call for systemic change to fix the UK’s broken waste system, meeting our needs now and for generations to come through an authoritative international solution: Zane’s Law.

Also known as the Clean Land (Human Rights) Act, Zane’s Law will protect ordinary people, workers and communities from the harm and death caused by toxic contaminated land and related waters. The Clean Land Act identifies and properly remediates contaminated land, thereby adding to land available for the government’s Infrastructure and Housing Bill, creating jobs and furthering economic growth.

The Clean Land Act means remediation at no cost to the public purse, because it follows the international ‘Polluter Pays Principle’, that those that cause pollution should pay to clean it up. This includes requisition, remediation, sale and capital receipt to cover the remediation costs.

The legacy of industrial waste is a ticking time bomb, worsened by climate change. According to the BMJ, 80% of people in this country live within 2km of landfill – that’s over 50 million people. 

The case of Corby – as seen in the Netflix drama Toxic Town last year – proves a clear link between atmospheric toxic waste inhaled or ingested by expecting mothers, and birth defects.

In Havering, community groups living in neighbourhoods around the ‘Rainham Volcano’ – 113 acres of the worst contaminated land in the country – won a legal battle to have the land properly assessed. Havering designated the land ‘contaminated’, unanimously endorsed Zane’s Law at both cabinet and full elected councillor meetings and moved to unify all interested parties in a voluntary cultural shift to the values, purpose and behaviours mandated in the law.

In preventing the intergenerational harm caused by contaminated land, Havering are seeking to lead by example.

“The Clean Land Act means remediation at no cost to the public purse, because it follows the international ‘Polluter Pays Principle’, that those that cause pollution should pay to clean it up”

The Clean Land Act is not political, as we can all relate to saving children’s lives. It is endorsed by the London Assembly and the secretary of state, mayors of major cities including Sadiq Khan, Steve Rotheram and Andy Burnham, Zack Polanski and the Green Party and members of the Welsh Senedd.

Zane’s Law has endorsements from local authorities across the country, is supported by every major trade union in the UK, the Chartered Institute of Building and the Chartered Institute of Housing.

Communities, neighbourhoods and households up and down the country are suffering in plain sight. They just want to survive and thrive, as is their right. Communities are pushing for action, and the government is listening.

Kye Gbangbola, campaigner, Zane’s Law