diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index 94f88a902..553adc702 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -42,6 +42,7 @@ export LOADTESTING_API_KEY='FIRETEXT_SIMULATION_KEY'
 export FIRETEXT_API_KEY='FIRETEXT_ACTUAL_KEY'
 export STATSD_PREFIX='YOU_OWN_PREFIX'
 export NOTIFICATION_QUEUE_PREFIX='YOUR_OWN_PREFIX'
+export REDIS_URL="redis://localhost:6379/0"
 "> environment.sh
 ```
 
@@ -55,6 +56,13 @@ NOTES:
 
 Install [Postgres.app](http://postgresapp.com/). You will need admin on your machine to do this.
 
+### 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:
+
+        REDIS_ENABLED = True
+
+
 ##  To run the application
 
 You need to run the api application and a local celery instance.
diff --git a/config.py b/config.py
index e6c0c68f2..179d8fcf3 100644
--- a/config.py
+++ b/config.py
@@ -40,6 +40,9 @@ class Config(object):
     # Prefix to identify queues in SQS
     NOTIFICATION_QUEUE_PREFIX = os.getenv('NOTIFICATION_QUEUE_PREFIX')
 
+    # URL of redis instance
+    REDIS_URL = os.getenv('REDIS_URL')
+
     ###########################
     # Default config values ###
     ###########################
@@ -133,7 +136,6 @@ class Config(object):
     STATSD_PORT = 8125
 
     REDIS_ENABLED = False
-    REDIS_URL = "redis://localhost:6379/0"
 
     SENDING_NOTIFICATIONS_TIMEOUT_PERIOD = 259200
 
@@ -190,6 +192,7 @@ class Preview(Config):
     CSV_UPLOAD_BUCKET_NAME = 'preview-notifications-csv-upload'
     API_HOST_NAME = 'http://admin-api.internal'
     FROM_NUMBER = 'preview'
+    REDIS_ENABLED = True
 
 
 class Staging(Config):
@@ -199,6 +202,7 @@ class Staging(Config):
     STATSD_ENABLED = True
     API_HOST_NAME = 'http://admin-api.internal'
     FROM_NUMBER = 'stage'
+    REDIS_ENABLED = True
 
 
 class Live(Config):
@@ -208,6 +212,7 @@ class Live(Config):
     STATSD_ENABLED = True
     API_HOST_NAME = 'http://admin-api.internal'
     FROM_NUMBER = '40604'
+    REDIS_ENABLED = True
 
 
 configs = {
diff --git a/environment_test.sh b/environment_test.sh
index a74a81a86..1c9d57c2c 100644
--- a/environment_test.sh
+++ b/environment_test.sh
@@ -11,3 +11,4 @@ export LOADTESTING_API_KEY="loadtesting"
 export FIRETEXT_API_KEY="Firetext"
 export STATSD_PREFIX="stats-prefix"
 export NOTIFICATION_QUEUE_PREFIX='testing'
+export REDIS_URL="redis://localhost:6379/0"