Calls to ban wood-burning stoves are based on false information, industry experts claim

Calls for wood-burning stoves to be banned are based on false claims they produce more harmful emissions than traffic, industry experts said last night.

Clean-air campaigners have been lobbying for the fashionable stoves to be banned from built-up areas, including London, by citing claims by the Environment Department that they presented a bigger problem than car exhausts.

Most major cities in England fall under a Defra Smoke Control Area, in which some wood-burners are permitted.

Defra’s guidance acknowledges their rise in popularity, adding: ‘Smoke from burning causes air pollution which harms the health of millions.’ 

Calls for wood-burning stoves to be banned are based on false claims they produce more harmful emissions than traffic, industry experts said last night

Clean-air campaigners have been lobbying for the fashionable stoves to be banned from built-up areas, including London , by citing claims by the Environment Department that they presented a bigger problem than car exhausts

Defra’s guidance acknowledges their rise in popularity, adding: ‘Smoke from burning causes air pollution which harms the health of millions’ - but its new report says domestic combustion emissions have significantly fallen behind traffic pollution

But it has now admitted in its report Emissions of Air Pollutants in the UK – Particulate Matter that domestic combustion emissions have significantly fallen behind traffic pollution.

And industry experts point to figures showing that harmful domestic emissions have actually fallen by 72 per cent since 1990, and by 18 per cent between 2020 and 2023 alone.

Only four fines were issued for illegal wood burning in Smoke Control Areas across England in the year to August 2024, despite 5,600 complaints. 

A spokesman for Homefire smokeless fuels said: ‘Legislation without proper enforcement is ineffective.’