diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index c9dffe506..3d43581d8 100644
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -4,7 +4,6 @@ RUN apt-get install -y build-essential nodejs && apt-get clean
 RUN gem install foreman
 
 ENV GOVUK_APP_NAME government-frontend
-ENV GOVUK_ASSET_ROOT http://assets-origin.dev.gov.uk
 ENV PORT 3090
 ENV RAILS_ENV development
 
diff --git a/config/application.rb b/config/application.rb
index 08893bffc..46493f12b 100644
--- a/config/application.rb
+++ b/config/application.rb
@@ -101,7 +101,11 @@ class Application < Rails::Application
     config.action_dispatch.rack_cache = nil
 
     # Path within public/ where assets are compiled to
-    config.assets.prefix = "/government-frontend"
+    config.assets.prefix = "/assets/government-frontend"
+
+    # allow overriding the asset host with an enironment variable, useful for
+    # when router is proxying to this app but asset proxying isn't set up.
+    config.asset_host = ENV["ASSET_HOST"]
 
     # Do not swallow errors in after_commit/after_rollback callbacks.
     # config.active_record.raise_in_transactional_callbacks = true
diff --git a/config/environments/development.rb b/config/environments/development.rb
index a953f8b63..919467e1a 100644
--- a/config/environments/development.rb
+++ b/config/environments/development.rb
@@ -51,8 +51,4 @@
   # Use an evented file watcher to asynchronously detect changes in source code,
   # routes, locales, etc. This feature depends on the listen gem.
   # config.file_watcher = ActiveSupport::EventedFileUpdateChecker
-
-  if ENV["GOVUK_ASSET_ROOT"].present?
-    config.asset_host = ENV["GOVUK_ASSET_ROOT"]
-  end
 end
diff --git a/config/environments/production.rb b/config/environments/production.rb
index 430105d66..efe3d385f 100644
--- a/config/environments/production.rb
+++ b/config/environments/production.rb
@@ -1,10 +1,4 @@
 Rails.application.configure do
-  # Set GOVUK_ASSET_ROOT for heroku - for review apps we have the hostname set
-  # at the time of the app being built so can't be set up in the app.json
-  if !ENV.include?("GOVUK_ASSET_ROOT") && ENV["HEROKU_APP_NAME"]
-    ENV["GOVUK_ASSET_ROOT"] = "https://#{ENV['HEROKU_APP_NAME']}.herokuapp.com"
-  end
-
   # Settings specified here will take precedence over those in config/application.rb.
 
   # Code is not reloaded between requests.
@@ -33,10 +27,6 @@
 
   # `config.assets.precompile` and `config.assets.version` have moved to config/initializers/assets.rb
 
-  # Enable serving of images, stylesheets, and JavaScripts from an asset server.
-  config.action_controller.asset_host = Plek.current.asset_root
-  config.slimmer.asset_host = Plek.current.find("static")
-
   # Specifies the header that your server uses for sending files.
   # config.action_dispatch.x_sendfile_header = 'X-Sendfile' # for Apache
   # config.action_dispatch.x_sendfile_header = 'X-Accel-Redirect' # for NGINX