London Wood Burner Ban? Khan Asks, Rules Unchanged

Two stories this week, and both have been reported more loudly than the facts support. The Mayor of London wants powers to restrict wood burners in private homes, which is not the same as having them. And the government’s new air quality alerts service now tells people, by postcode, when pollution is forecast to be high, with home burning named in the advice. Here is what each one actually changes for a stove owner.

Sadiq Khan asks Defra for powers over wood burners in London homes

According to reporting in The Telegraph on 11 September 2026, the Mayor of London has made a formal submission to Defra asking for new powers for himself and other local authority leaders to crack down on solid fuel burning. The reported asks are area-specific restrictions on wood burners in private homes, described as working through new “zero-emission zones”, limits on when burning can happen, including domestic bonfires, and a general call for the government to go further on solid fuel.

That is a request, not a rule. HETAS, which has not seen the submission itself, points out that no existing power lets a council restrict the use of an approved appliance in a private home, and that giving one would need new primary legislation. Smoke control areas are created under the Clean Air Act 1993, and that Act does not hand the Mayor or any borough the power to restrict log burner use. When Defra first announced its solid fuel consultation in December 2025, officials said there were no plans to ban burning by area or to ban older stoves and open fires. HETAS says it has asked Defra whether that position has changed. Reported accounts of Defra’s current stance differ, so treat any “ban” headline this week as a description of the request rather than of the law.

What does apply in London today is what applied last winter. Almost all of the capital is a smoke control area. Emitting smoke from your chimney can bring a penalty of up to £300 per incident, and buying unauthorised fuel for a non-exempt appliance up to £1,000. You can still own and use a stove at any hour; the rules restrict the fuel and the appliance, not the heating. In practice that means an exempt appliance and properly dry wood, which is where Ready to Burn and a cheap meter earn their keep: what moisture should firewood be covers the 20 per cent line and how to use a moisture meter on firewood covers checking it properly. HETAS’s explainer is at HETAS.

GOV.UK’s new air quality alerts name home burning in the advice

The government launched a free air quality alerts service on 27 August 2026. You pick an area, such as your home or workplace, and get an email or SMS when air pollution is forecast to be high or very high. It tracks five pollutants: PM2.5, PM10, nitrogen dioxide, ozone and sulphur dioxide. Defra’s launch notice also mentions its consultation on tightening emissions standards for new wood burning appliances, which is the context stove owners should read it in.

HETAS picked it up on 15 September, and the part worth noting is the service’s advice page. On home heating it recommends avoiding unnecessary burning, using Ready to Burn certified fuel and keeping appliances maintained. HETAS adds its own list: sweep at least once a year and twice a year if burning wood, keep stored wood at 20 per cent moisture or below, and avoid overnight slumbering and overfiring.

For a buyer, the useful thing is that a high-pollution alert is now a free, local signal for when to skip a decorative fire, and the advice around it is the same advice that keeps a flue clean and fuel bills down. Slumbering is the habit most people get wrong, and keeping a wood burner in overnight explains how to do it without choking the fire to smoke. If your logs are the problem, how to store firewood dry is the fix. The launch is at GOV.UK and HETAS’s advice is at HETAS.