The most deprived areas of Leeds are home to 18 times more outdoor advertising than the city’s least deprived areas, according to new national research.
The research, from campaign group Adfree Cities, finds that of 1,597 roadside outdoor advertisements in Leeds, 550 (34%) are in the most deprived decile compared to just 30 (2%) in the three least deprived decile.
Adverts, including bus shelter ads, large digital billboards and pavement ad units, are also concentrated in areas of Leeds with lower income and higher air pollution. At a national scale, 82% of adverts are in the poorest half of England and Wales.
Four of the six council wards in WLD‘s patch are featured in the top 15 for advertising. These include Armley in fifth, Farnley & Wortley in sixth, Kirkstall in ninth and Bramley & Stanningley in 11th. Of the other wards, Pudsey and Calverley & Farsley sit in 16th and 17th place respectively out of 33 wards in Leeds.
Little London and Woodhouse is top of the survey.
Adfree Cities say this mirrors existing patterns of social injustice and risks impacting communities through exposure to harmful advertising content, as well as the under-recognised impacts of brightly lit digital screens on health and wellbeing. They say there are significantly more adverts in more deprived areas, more billboards in locations with more air pollution, and more marketing in the areas where people have the least disposable income.
A spokesperson for grassroots group Adblock Leeds, who object to new and existing advertising infrastructure in Leeds, said they hoped this research would “put the brakes” on the proliferation of advertising in the city.
Loup Suja, from Adblock Leeds, said: “We keep being contacted by residents who wake up one day to a massive digital screen in front of their window. This new research shows the magnitude of the problem and reveals how more deprived areas of Leeds are disproportionately targeted by ad companies. We hope it will help put the brakes on the spread of billboards in Leeds and stop selling our city to whatever big company in London.”
Proposals for new outdoor advertisements, especially new digital billboards, can be hotly contested. Last year a ‘dominant’ digital billboard in Stanningley was also refused permission by council planners, along with a ‘stark and incongruous’ billboard, also in Stanningley, and a ‘distracting’ advertising board in Thornbury.
Industry data shows that digital billboards are energy intensive. Larger ad screens use the same electricity as 11 average UK households, while smaller screens such as those at bus shelters use the same electricity as three homes.
Leeds North West MP Alex Sobel launched a petition to switch off a new digital billboard in Otley at night, after hearing from residents struggling to sleep. He wrote: “I would not want to live with that kind of intrusion, and I don’t want that for you either” and commented on the need for long-term change to “an out-of-date planning law that was never intended to deal with this kind of thing”.
Peter Brooks, who led the Adfree Cities research, said: “Advertising billboards dominate public space, broadcasting unhealthy adverts and shining light pollution into homes. It’s clear from our research that while wealthier neighbourhoods are comparatively free from the intrusion of billboards, poorer communities are more likely to be surrounded by adverts that are detrimental to health and wellbeing.”
Adfree Cities are calling for national reform to outdoor advertising rules for England, which date from 2007, to empower councils to take into account a wide range of impacts on local communities and to make advertising placement fairer.
Nicola Round, co-director at Adfree Cities, said: “The out-of-home advertising industry routinely ignores the views of local residents who overwhelmingly oppose new advertising billboards, when consulted. And, while many local authorities recognise that the proliferation of outdoor advertising is undermining community pride, public health, wellbeing and climate targets – outdated planning regulations do not allow them to make decisions in line with these urgent priorities.
“We need to address the damaging, and unequal, impact of outdoor advertising across our cities, and to make space for a vision for public space where our health and environment matter more than corporate profit.”
The group also supports the introduction of local and national policies that restrict the most harmful advertising content, including for unhealthy food, gambling, alcohol and environmentally-damaging products and services.
Amongst the biggest spenders on outdoor advertising between 2022 and 2023 in the UK were McDonald’s, KFC, Coca Cola and Pepsico, who together spent over £170,000,000.
You can read the full report at: adfreecities.org.uk/unavoidable-impact.
I didn’t realise that these digital advertising boards use so much power, but then they are excessively bright and distracting. We’re supposedly in a climate emergency, yet you see loads of shops lit up through the night, illuminated advertising boards all over the place, yet they switch off street lighting. How can this be right?
We have so many dilapidated advertising hoardings in Farnley and Wortley with nothing on them except the eyesore of old peeling adverts. Remove them!