Lobbying by Stove Industry undermines Council Public Health Campaigns and Housing Plans
An investigation published by The BMJ in March reveals councils in England face legal pressure from the Stove Industry Association (SIA) as public health campaigns urge homeowners to limit the use of wood-burners.
Findings from freedom of information requests, sent to local authority areas identified as having the highest density of stoves per square km, showed 15 of the 50 councils contacted had faced threats from the stove industry. The stove group also shared leaflets to further local councils claiming several health benefits to wood-burning, including reducing cortisol levels.
Domestic lit fires have been implicated as a major driver of worsening indoor air pollution in the UK as they result in carbon particulates that can enter the blood stream. Evidence from a 2020 systematic review in Lancet Global Health, shows indoor air pollution is associated with cardiovascular and lung diseases and complications.
Despite this, stove industry lobbyists objected to a joint public awareness campaign against wood-burning in 2023 by several London boroughs. Although the SIA did not pursue legal action and the Advertising Standards Authority did not take action, the threat damaged local authorities’ confidence in subsequent campaigns.
Public health advocates have spoken out about the severity of the stove industry’s lobbying, as evidence of the negative health consequences of wood-burning is now embedded within UK government health policy and wider medical research.
One study, led by Dr. James Milner of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, analysed the effect of net zero policies on outdoor and indoor air quality. The findings suggest current UK homes require energy retrofits to meet net zero housing targets. However, “enthusiasm” for woodburners, according to England’s chief medical officer Chris Witty for the BMJ, directly impacts ventilation, which leads to poorer indoor air quality and uncertainties surrounding the relationship between home energy efficiency interventions and residents’ health.
Furthermore, a loophole in regulations permits wood-burning stoves in new homes, despite the low-carbon objectives of England’s upcoming “Future Homes Standard” (FHS) publication. The regulations have been subject to over ten years of consultations, and in the current energy crisis caused by the US-Israel war on Iran war, professor of energy at the University of Oxford Jan Rosenow told The Guardian that the most recent delay was “outrageous”. Head of energy at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit think tank Jess Ralston, speaking to the same newspaper, expects developers to engage as little as possible with the new standards, “causing costs to homeowners later on”.
