diff --git a/changelog.d/+disable-redis-setting.added.md b/changelog.d/+disable-redis-setting.added.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..227ca63d9
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog.d/+disable-redis-setting.added.md
@@ -0,0 +1,2 @@
+Added ARGUS_DISABLE_REDIS setting as an environment variable to disable redis during development
+and testing
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/src/argus/site/settings/base.py b/src/argus/site/settings/base.py
index 087ac0674..12d29fea2 100644
--- a/src/argus/site/settings/base.py
+++ b/src/argus/site/settings/base.py
@@ -217,16 +217,27 @@
 
 ASGI_APPLICATION = "argus.ws.asgi.application"
 
+# Disable using Redis in Channels and fall back to an InMemoryChannel
+# WARNING: This should only ever be used during development/testing and never
+# in production. To enforce this it is only ever activated when DEBUG is also set
 # fmt: off
-_REDIS = urlsplit("//" + get_str_env("ARGUS_REDIS_SERVER", "127.0.0.1:6379"))
-CHANNEL_LAYERS = {
-    "default": {
-        "BACKEND": "channels_redis.core.RedisChannelLayer",
-        "CONFIG": {
-            "hosts": [(_REDIS.hostname, _REDIS.port or 6379)],
+ARGUS_DISABLE_REDIS = get_bool_env("ARGUS_DISABLE_REDIS", False)
+if ARGUS_DISABLE_REDIS and DEBUG:
+    CHANNEL_LAYERS = {
+        "default": {
+            "BACKEND": "channels.layers.InMemoryChannelLayer",
         },
-    },
-}
+    }
+else:
+    _REDIS = urlsplit("//" + get_str_env("ARGUS_REDIS_SERVER", "127.0.0.1:6379"))
+    CHANNEL_LAYERS = {
+        "default": {
+            "BACKEND": "channels_redis.core.RedisChannelLayer",
+            "CONFIG": {
+                "hosts": [(_REDIS.hostname, _REDIS.port or 6379)],
+            },
+        },
+    }
 # fmt: on
 
 # Project specific settings