A coalition of more than 60 charities has politely reminded the Labour government that it once promised to introduce a clean air act - back when it was in opposition, in 2023. The promise, which would have banned wood burning, cleared diesel vehicles from the roads, and forced councils to cut pollution, was apparently left on the cutting-room floor of the final election manifesto. The king’s speech on Wednesday seems like an ideal time to resurrect it, the charities say.
Jemima Hartshorn, founder of Mums for Lungs, one of the groups behind the letter, pointed out that dirty air is “the biggest environmental health risk in this country,” costing about £27bn a year and linked to asthma, wheezing, cancer, and dementia. “Yet, we know how to solve this problem,” she added, presumably gesturing at a very large, very obvious lever labeled “stop polluting.”
The call, backed by organisations with over 230,000 members, was reinforced by Stephen Holgate, the special adviser to the Royal College of Physicians on air quality. He told the British Medical Journal it was a “disgrace” that so few complaints about wood burning result in enforcement action. In the year from August 2024 to August 2025, at least 15,195 complaints were made against wood burning in England - but only 24 fines were issued. That’s a conviction rate that would make a sieve blush.
Current air regulations date back to the coal-burning days, which is like using a 19th-century map to navigate a 21st-century city. Holgate noted that particles from wood burning are “at least as toxic, if not more toxic, than those coming out of coal,” but regulations are “never acted on.”
Hartshorn also called for phasing out wood-burning stoves and helping rural residents switch to cleaner systems like heat pumps, because apparently the sight of a wood burner in a city centre is now as common as a pigeon - and roughly as welcome.
The BMJ also revealed that the Scottish government was lobbied by the Stove Industry Association (SIA) before abandoning plans to ban wood burners from new homes. The UK government was similarly lobbied, with eight meetings between Defra and SIA representatives between October 2021 and June 2024, when the Tories were in power. Conservative ministers or Defra officials met clean air campaigners only twice over the same period. Since Labour took office, Defra has held three meetings with the SIA and 14 with campaigners - a ratio that suggests progress, if not exactly a clean sweep.
The government consulted on wood burning earlier this year, but campaigners called it “toothless,” as it ruled out any form of ban in favour of a potential health warning on stoves. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) refused to provide details of any meetings with the stove industry, citing the Freedom of Information Act as a reason to keep mum. Last month, MHCLG issued new guidance - the Future Homes Standard - that allows wood-burning stoves in new housing, despite having indicated it would require low-carbon heat pumps.
Hartshorn expressed shock at the lobbying and devastation on behalf of “all the children, hundreds of thousands of them, who are attending hospitals, struggling to breathe and scared - because our air is making them sick.” She added: “This government committed to raising the healthiest generation of children ever. Well, this is the test: will they cut ties with the SIA and other industry lobbying bodies and finally do right by our children and public health?”
An SIA spokesperson defended their engagement as “conducted openly and in line with standard democratic processes,” and supported “proportionate, evidence-based measures.” They warned that a ban would harm the UK’s manufacturing and rural economies. But Ecodesign stoves, though an improvement on older models, still emit air pollutants - so the SIA’s solution is essentially a slightly less smoky version of the same problem.
A government spokesperson said: “Our new rules will reduce harms from domestic burning and we will continue to monitor pollution from this source to inform any future action.” A Scottish government spokesperson cited concerns from rural communities about resilience during power outages. So, in summary: the air remains dirty, the lobbying continues, and the children keep coughing. But at least the stoves look nice.