Wood you believe it? Just four fines are issued by councils for illegal burning – despite 100 complaints being made a week
Complaints to councils over smoke pollution coming from wood burners have rocketed in the past 12 months – but no one has been prosecuted.
Trendy open fires have been making a comeback in recent years –with around 10 per cent of households burning wood.
But research by parents’ campaign group Mums for Lungs has found that complaints have hit 5,608 a year to local councils who responded to freedom of information requests.
But despite more than 100 complaints every week, there have been just four fines of around £300.
Smoke pollution from burning wood has been linked to increasing the risk of cancer and respiratory diseases.
The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has called for wood burning to be phased out to reduce the rate of asthma in children.
Jemima Hartshorn, of Mums for Lungs, said: ‘If you open your door on a cold night in any town, city or village you can smell the wood pollution.
‘You wouldn’t want a truck pumping air pollution into your front room, but ironically even modern wood stoves cause six times the fine particle pollution of an HGV.
Trendy open fires have been making a comeback in recent years –with around 10 per cent of households burning wood
Despite more than 100 complaints every week, there have been just four fines of around £300 issued by local councils
‘We’ve known about the health impacts of wood burning for decades. We need to make sure councils are given the tools and resources to protect children from toxic pollution and not just talk about the risks.
‘The current system is obviously not fit for purpose.’
In Birmingham, there were 783 complaints made to the council but despite this, the council did not even issue a single enforcement letter or carry out an inspection.
Manchester City Council had 213 complaints, but issued just 7 warning letters, while Cheshire East had 141 complaints, but did nothing.
By contrast, Bromley Council in South East London issued 275 enforcement letters and carried out around 135 inspections.
North Tyneside Council wrote 270 enforcement letters in the same period, the second highest in the country.
The Government estimates that around 7.5 per cent of households UK rely on burning wood for heating around 2.1 million homes although campaigners say the number is much higher in some parts of the country.
Only four councils out of the 159 that responded to the requests said they had issued a penalty notice for wood burning – Bolsover, Bristol, Horsham and Wakefield.
St Helen’s Council said they issued four abatement notices and Norwich City Council issued a single community protection warning.
The only source of PM2.5 emissions that has increased since 2003 is domestic combustion, according to a recent Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) report
The figures include complaints submitted about different forms of smoke pollution from domestic wood burning.
Domestic combustion is a major cause of toxic air pollution in the UK, and is the biggest source of fine particulate matter (PM2.5).
In 2024, government data showed that wood burning was responsible for 22 per cent of particle pollution in the UK, compared to 18 per cent from traffic.
RCPCH Clinical Fellow, Dr Alice Willson, said: ‘Wood burning releases harmful PM2.5 particles, contributing significantly to both indoor and outdoor pollution.
‘Many people are unaware of the severe health risks, especially for children whose developing lungs make them particularly vulnerable to all forms of air pollution.
‘In our recent position statement, we called for phasing out domestic wood burning in urban areas to reduce air pollution.
‘Taking steps such as this will not only protect child health, but also the health of the planet.’
