diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 223870d3e..ab5aa7d84 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -61,10 +61,18 @@ export PATH=${PATH}:/Applications/Postgres.app/Contents/Versions/11/bin/
 
 ### Redis
 
-To switch redis on you'll need to install it locally. On a OSX we've used brew for this. To use redis caching you need to switch it on by changing the config for development:
+You can run redis locally using
 
-        REDIS_ENABLED = True
+```
+brew install redis
+redis-server
+```
 
+To get the API to use redis locally you need to change the config for development:
+
+```
+REDIS_ENABLED = True
+```
 
 ##  To run the application
 
diff --git a/app/config.py b/app/config.py
index b4df84345..cc945cbe5 100644
--- a/app/config.py
+++ b/app/config.py
@@ -428,7 +428,7 @@ class Development(Config):
     NOTIFY_EMAIL_DOMAIN = "notify.tools"
 
     SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI = os.getenv('SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI', 'postgresql://localhost/notification_api')
-    REDIS_URL = 'redis://localhost:6379/0'
+    REDIS_URL = os.getenv('REDIS_URL', 'redis://localhost:6379/0')
 
     ANTIVIRUS_ENABLED = os.getenv('ANTIVIRUS_ENABLED') == '1'
 
diff --git a/scripts/run_with_docker.sh b/scripts/run_with_docker.sh
index b423a7923..58becf3b0 100755
--- a/scripts/run_with_docker.sh
+++ b/scripts/run_with_docker.sh
@@ -9,11 +9,13 @@ source environment.sh
 AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=${AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID:-"$(aws configure get aws_access_key_id)"}
 AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=${AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY:-"$(aws configure get aws_secret_access_key)"}
 : "${SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI:=postgresql://postgres@host.docker.internal/notification_api}"
+REDIS_URL="redis://host.docker.internal:6379"
 
 docker run -it --rm \
   -e AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=$AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID \
   -e AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=$AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY \
   -e SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI=$SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI \
+  -e REDIS_URL=$REDIS_URL \
   -v $(pwd):/home/vcap/app \
   ${DOCKER_IMAGE_NAME} \
   ${@}