Firewood: Houseboats facing potential fines for burning wood

INSIDE the forestry fraternity and rural communities, wood burning is in fine fettle, but elsewhere forces conspire to dampen down the flames. Until now, research by the anti-wood-burning lobby has concentrated on perceived health risks from burning wood, specifically on inhalation of so-called PM 2.5 particles with diameters of 2.5 microns or less. PM 2.5 particles are most damaging because they can work their way deep into the body’s tissues and organs to cause a range of serious health issues. 

A 2022 study cited by Professor Chris Whitty, chief medical officer for England, showed that even ‘eco-design’ wood-burning stoves generated 450 times more toxic air pollution than gas central heating, while older stoves now banned from sale produced 3,700 times more. A separate study claims wood burning in homes produces more PM 2.5 than all road traffic in the UK.

Until now, health risks have been centre stage, but some recent research focussed on cost and says wood burners are a more expensive way to heat homes than using either a gas-fired boiler or a heat pump. Rachel Pidgeon from the charity Impact on Urban Health, which financed the study, says its findings demolish widely held assumptions that wood burning is less costly than other forms of energy utilisation. 

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Research found wood burners were only cheaper when ‘free firewood’ was used with consumers cutting wood from their own land or foraging. But if a household is using a newly installed DEFRA-approved wood burner for 20 per cent of its heating requirement then annual cost including installation was 24-per-cent greater than running a typical gas boiler. That figure rose to 50 per cent where a household used a wood burner to generate 80 per cent of its heat requirement. And even with a wood burner already installed and 80 per cent of heat produced by gas, costs were still 15-per-cent higher. In all scenarios, wood burners were always more expensive to use than air source heat pumps.

Until now, research by the anti-wood-burning lobby has concentrated on perceived health risks from burning wood, (Image: Getty/stock)

Talk by urban and suburban local authorities to restrict and even ban wood burning in their areas is already rife, but I recently came across a peculiar situation relating to vessels moored on inland waterways. Under the Environment Act, which came into force in 2021, council enforcement officers can issue fines of up to £300 to boat dwellers emitting visible smoke from wood-burning appliances. Of course this is largely irrelevant to areas where there are no navigable inland waterways, but in others with high concentrations of navigable rivers and canals there will be hundreds of moored vessels which are actually homes. 

One such area is the Sandwell local authority in the West Midlands, boasting 41 miles of canal within its borders and having already approved plans to enforce smoke controls. The National Bargee Travellers Association (NBTA) represents thousands of citizens living on Britain’s waterways. The majority of these houseboat owners and dwellers do not have alternative ways of heating their homes. Jack Saville of NBTA told press how the majority of these boats are fitted with solid-fuel stoves and how many poorer boat owners and dwellers cannot afford smokeless fuel.

As such, the threat of fines from an increasing number of councils could stop these often vulnerable people from heating their homes during winter.

Sandwell Council said: “Air pollution is a significant issue in Sandwell and some of the most harmful man-made pollutants are emitted from wood- and coal-burning stoves, which is why are introducing a borough-wide smoke control area. This does not ban solid-fuel burning, but it will require residents take responsibility over the fuels they burn.”

Smoke from the chimney of a narrowboat on a frosty morning along the Kennet and Avon Canal near Bath in Somerset. (Image: FJ)

Ironically it is the widespread use of wood-burning stoves by permanent land residents, far outnumbering the wood-burning stoves on boats, which has apparently made boat dwellers highly visible and easy targets.

So what comes next? Chances are we are moving inexorably towards a total ban on wood burning in urban areas, with London leading the way. As of February 2023, wood burners have, in effect, been banned in new and refurbished buildings in London.