How the country should tackle the issue of domestic burning - Will Prescott

Domestic burning is especially popular among the more affluent — one study found that nearly half of the people who burn domestically are from the top two social grades. By contrast, the same study found that only 8 per cent of those who burn domestically do so out of necessity.

But few people overall seem to view air pollution from domestic burning as a significant problem. Among the members of the three focus groups we conducted in deprived areas of England as part of the research for Bright Blue’s new report, Up in the air? Delivering cleaner air in a socially just way, domestic burning was seen as a thing of the past.

Unfortunately, while the UK government has taken steps to address the growing domestic burning problem, these have not gone far enough.

Since 2022, only less-polluting stoves, known as ‘Ecodesign’, may be sold in the UK. However, Ecodesign stoves still produce PM2.5 emissions 750 times greater per hour than a heavy goods vehicle, and more than 450 times more PM2.5 emissions per hour than a gas boiler. As such, even the new standards still permit far higher than acceptable emissions of PM2.5. The Government also will not do anything to reduce burning from stoves installed before 2022.

Additionally, in 2023, the Government also reduced the maximum amount of smoke that can be emitted from stoves in most UK cities from 5g to 3g per hour. Unfortunately, proving that domestic stoves have exceeded emissions limits is expensive and practically difficult. Consequently, since January 2022, only three fines resulted from the over 10,000 complaints about illegal domestic burning. Clearly, more needs to be done.

Fortunately, Bright Blue’s new report offers three practical solutions to address this growing problem.

First, by requiring that warning labels be added to new and refurbished stoves stating the health risks caused by domestic burning, we can begin to change the favourable perceptions surrounding it.

Second, by permitting local authorities to ban domestic burning on days when air pollution is forecast to be at a level harmful to human health, we will make a tangible difference without going so far as a total ban. It would also help further to reinforce the link between domestic burning and harmful air pollution.

Finally, by replacing the Ecodesign emission standards for new stoves with the much tighter Nordic emission standards, under which stoves emit less than half the amount of PM2.5 as Ecodesign stoves do, we can directly mitigate the harms caused by new stoves.

A particular advantage of these policies is that, because they are targeted at a disproportionately middle-class activity, they can help to reduce air pollution without burdening the least well-off.

Will Prescott is a researcher at Bright Blue.