Only one prosecution for illegal wood burning has been made in the past year despite 15,195 complaints across England, data shows.
Additionally, just 24 fines were issued by local authorities between September 2024 and August 2025, responses to freedom of information requests by the campaign group Mums for Lungs revealed.
In smoke control areas alone, 9,274 complaints were made – a 65% increase on the previous year. In these areas, households may burn wood or other fuels only in stoves approved by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) that have been designed to limit harmful emissions.
Under the Environment Act 2021, fines can be issued for violating rules, including £300 for smoke-emitting chimneys, or £1,000 for using unauthorised fuel in unapproved appliances.
The highest numbers of complaints were reported in Swale in Kent, Birmingham, Manchester, Wakefield and Dorset, though most councils issued few or no penalties.
Campaigners say the figures reveal a lack of enforcement of existing air pollution laws, despite growing concern about the health effects of wood smoke, the leading source of fine particulate pollution (PM2.5) in the UK.
Dr James Heydon, an assistant professor of criminology at the University of Nottingham, whose research focuses on environmental and social policy, said: “As an air pollution scientist, I get emails each winter from people whose homes are being filled by their neighbour’s wood smoke. Many are desperately worried about the impact on their child’s asthma or the health of their relative. Often they have exhausted the options with their local council. The system is clearly not working for them.”
Health experts have warned of rising rates of lung cancer among people who have never smoked, as well as the impact of air pollution on children. According to the Royal College of Physicians, air pollution causes up to 36,000 premature deaths in the UK each year and costs the economy an estimated £27bn annually.
The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has called for a phase-out of domestic wood burning in urban areas, noting that air pollution is the second leading risk factor for death in children under five in the UK and globally. A recent University College London (UCL) study found that people using solid-fuel stoves experienced a faster decline in lung function than non-users.
The previous government promised in its 2022 environmental improvement plan to tighten emission limits for new stoves in smoke control areas, but legislation has not yet been introduced. A promised review of the plan, confirmed early this year, remains unpublished.
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Jemima Hartshorn, the founder of Mums for Lungs, said enforcement failures were leaving people exposed to harmful smoke: “The government claims to have world-leading laws on air pollution, but they are meaningless if they are not enforced.
“The increasing number of installations in densely populated areas needs to be controlled. By continuing to allow these appliances to be installed the government is kicking the can down the road and storing up a PM2.5 problem for future generations. Defra need to evaluate their labelling of stoves as ‘Defra-approved’ because this is being used to sell a wider idea to consumers of burning being environmentally friendly.”
A 2025 UCL mapping project found the proportion of homes with wood burners rose from 9.4% in 2022 to 10.3% in 2024.
