Are Wood Burners Being Banned in the UK? What Britain's Energy Crisis Really Means
Updated: Sandra TaylorLog burners, EV tax changes and Britain's fragile gas supply and where firewood fits in.
We wrote recently about why UK energy prices are rising this winter and how to cut your heating costs. The conflict in the Middle East, an exceptionally warm summer across the UK and Europe, low gas storage levels, and gas prices continuing to rise week on week were all reasons why we encouraged our readers to prepare early. That pressure hasn't eased. Ofgem confirmed a 3.6% rise for October 2026, taking a typical annual bill to £1,723, the cap's highest level in three years. And according to MoneySavingExpert's latest energy price cap predictions, updated this week, it may not stop there: EDF, British Gas and E.on Next are all currently forecasting a further rise of around 25% in January 2027, which would push typical bills to over £2,150 a year.
For those with a reliable wood-burning stove, stocking up on firewood before the heating season begins could help avoid the impact of worsening conditions. As we near the winter months, we also, the same as every year, see an increase in the number of people calling for bans of woodburning. The most recent loud noise came from the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, who believes wood burning is causing increased pollution in London.
Stepping back from the noise of bans on wood burning, our attention was caught by other events, including changes to electric car and renewable energy policies, making us wonder who actually controls a household's energy costs in Britain.
Log Burner Bans and EV Road Tax: Is Clean Air the Real Reason?
Sadiq Khan has asked the government for new powers to restrict wood-burning stoves, bonfires and solid fuel burning in private homes and gardens within London's zero-emission zones, as part of a wider clean air push. His submission to Defra draws on University College London research linking wood smoke to lung damage. It's worth being precise about the scope: this is not a national ban, and it isn't law yet. At present, Khan can only control burning on council-owned land (parks and allotments), not inside people's homes.
Since April 2025, electric vehicles have lost their exemption from Vehicle Excise Duty. A new EV now pays £10 in its first year and £200 a year from year two; anything over £50,000 picks up an extra £440 a year (£640 total) for five years.
Additionally, from 2028, EV owners will also face a pay-per-mile charge: 3p a mile, with drivers self-declaring annual mileage and the DVLA checking it at the MOT. Plug-in hybrids get a lighter 1.5p-a-mile rate.
Neither policy will make a real dent in the UK's carbon emissions. One household's wood burner, or one driver's extra miles, is too small to matter nationally. So what these policies actually do is take a decision that used to be yours - what you burn, how much you drive - and hand it to a centralised system instead. That would be a fair trade if that system were reliable. But it just so happens that it isn't.
Is Britain's Gas Security Stable?
Gas makes up between 36% and 40% of the UK's total inland primary energy consumption, more than any other single source, because it dominates home heating and balances the electricity grid when wind and solar fall short. The UK imports roughly 68% to 70% of the gas it uses, via pipeline from Norway and LNG tankers from the US and elsewhere.
What makes that dependency risky is storage. Britain can hold very little gas in reserve compared with its neighbours:
- United Kingdom: 10-12 days of average winter cover, dropping to as little as 7.5 days at peak demand
- Germany: 89 days
- France: 103 days
- Netherlands: 123 days
The UK closed its largest storage site, Rough, in 2017 on cost grounds; Centrica has since reopened part of it, but nowhere near enough to close the gap. Britain runs on a just-in-time model, taking daily deliveries rather than holding a buffer. When shipping routes were disrupted by the escalation in the Middle East earlier this year, the Guardian reported UK gas storage briefly fell to around two days' worth of supply.
The North Sea isn't the rescue plan people assume it is either. The North Sea Transition Authority puts remaining commercial oil and gas reserves at 2.9 billion barrels of oil equivalent, of which only around 30% is gas, in a mature, declining basin. Industry body OEUK argues far more gas could be technically recoverable with new investment, but that's contested and politically difficult. On current trajectories, without new field development, the UK has perhaps four to five years of proven, easily accessible domestic gas left.
The VAT Relief on Home Energy Upgrades Is Ending in 2027
There's a third piece to this, and it's arguably the most avoidable. Right now, installing insulation, heat pumps, solar panels, batteries or heating controls qualifies for 0% VAT. That relief is legally scheduled to end on 31 March 2027, when these installations revert to the standard 5% rate, adding hundreds of pounds to the cost of exactly the upgrades that reduce a household's exposure to gas prices and grid disruption.
It's an odd moment to withdraw that incentive. Gas storage is as low as it's been in years, and the products this relief covers are precisely what helps a home need less gas in the first place.
Where Does Firewood Fit Into the Energy Security Picture?
This is the part of the story that rarely gets told alongside the policy headlines, so it's worth setting out plainly.
Since May 2021, wood sold in the UK in volumes under 2m³ for domestic burning has had to carry Woodsure's "Ready to Burn" certification, administered on behalf of Defra, confirming a moisture content of 20% or less, whether the logs are kiln-dried or seasoned. We've covered this standard in more detail in our guide to the Ready to Burn scheme. It exists because wet wood is the real driver of smoke and poor combustion, far more than the stove itself.
On appliances, Ecodesign standards became mandatory for new room heater stoves in the UK on 1 January 2022, setting minimum efficiency and maximum emissions limits; reputable manufacturers were building to that standard from 2017 onward. HETAS, the UK's official body for solid fuel heating, oversees approval of appliances, installers and fuel. None of this makes wood burning risk-free, but it does mean the honest comparison is between a correctly installed, HETAS-approved Ecodesign stove burning Ready to Burn logs and an open fire or an old, uncertified appliance burning wet wood. Those are very different things. You can read more in our article on Smoke Control Zones.
There's also a sourcing story. Wood from properly managed, replanted woodland is part of a genuine growth cycle: trees are felled, more are planted, and carbon is reabsorbed as they regrow. That's a fundamentally different resource model to gas, which is extracted once and not replaced. And unlike gas, firewood doesn't depend on a pipeline, an LNG tanker, or a shipping lane holding up on the other side of the world. It sits in your garden, in your control, ready when you need it, which, given the numbers above, is not a small thing.
The Bottom Line: Who Really Controls Your Energy Bills?
None of this is an argument against clean air or against net zero. Plenty of our own customers have an EV on the drive and a wood store by the back door, and that combination - grid power for some things, a self-sufficient fallback for others - is exactly the kind of resilience worth encouraging. The question worth asking, as regulation tightens on wood burning and the tax incentives around EVs and home insulation are withdrawn, is simple: with Britain holding barely ten days of gas in reserve, should policy really be narrowing the options households have to look after themselves?
Frequently Asked Questions
Is wood burning being banned in the UK?
Wood burning is not currently being banned in the UK. Sadiq Khan has asked Defra for new powers to restrict solid fuel burning in private homes within London's zero-emission zones. This is a proposal, not current law. Today, his powers only extend to council-owned land, such as parks and allotments. For the full national picture of what the law currently does and doesn't permit, the House of Commons Library briefing on domestic wood burning controls is the most comprehensive and up-to-date reference available.
What's the difference between an open fire, an old stove and an Ecodesign stove?
The difference between an open fire, an old stove and an Ecodesign stove is the emissions they emit. An open fire has no emissions controls at all. Older stoves, installed before Ecodesign rules, vary widely in efficiency and emissions. A modern Ecodesign-compliant stove, mandatory for new room heaters since 1 January 2022, meets set minimum efficiency and maximum emissions standards, and performs very differently from either of the other two, especially when burning correctly dried fuel. Learn more about the impact of different wood-burning appliances.
What does "Ready to Burn" mean, and is it a legal requirement?
Ready to Burn is a Woodsure certification, run on behalf of Defra, confirming that wood sold in volumes under 2m³ has a moisture content of 20% or less. It's been a legal labelling requirement for smaller-volume wood sales since May 2021, because wet wood is the biggest single cause of smoke and poor combustion.
Is firewood a genuine alternative for UK energy security?
Firewood can't replace gas at a national grid-balancing level, but at a household level it's one of the few heating fuels a family can source, store and control entirely outside the gas network. This is relevant given the UK holds only 10–12 days of gas storage on average, against 89–123 days in Germany, France and the Netherlands.
Related reading: Winter 2026 Energy Price Rises: How to Cut Your Heating Costs This Winter · What Is the Ready to Burn Scheme, and Why Is It Important?
Sources:
Vehicle tax for electric and low emission vehicles – GOV.UK
Electric car road tax – guide to VED for EVs 2026 – RAC Drive
Pay-Per-Mile Confirmed: What eVED Means for EV Drivers – Electric Car Scheme
VAT on Energy Saving Materials in 2026 – Cucumber Eco
Why UK gas storage levels are concerningly low – DW
Perfect storm reduces UK winter gas storage to concerningly low levels – Centrica
Great Britain has only two days of gas stored as Iran war disrupts supplies – The Guardian
Reserves and resources as at end 2024 – North Sea Transition Authority
New analysis shows untapped UK domestic gas reserves are double government estimate – OEUK
Ecodesign Explained – HETAS
New Legislation for Wood and Manufactured Solid Fuels – HETAS