Government watchdog report highlights the importance of replacing old, inefficient stoves 

2023-2024 progress summary 

The OEP provide summaries in their annual reports relating to EIP23 areas, highlighting past trends, progress, and overall prospects of meeting ambitions, targets, and commitments. 

Clean air is the second of ten annually assessed goals and the goal that relates the most closely to our industry. In table 1, the OEP determine the UK’s progress towards clean air: 

• Past trends show that improving trends dominate 

• Progress is limited 

• Overall prospects of meeting ambitions, targets, and commitments are partially off track 

Annual clean air trends 

Examining the trends in the overall clean air summary more closely in tables 3.2, 3.3, and 3.4 give insight into the assessments. 

• The UK’s five key air pollutants (NOx, SO2, NMVOC, PM2.5, and NH3) all show improvement – albeit decreasing – across 2017-2022. 

• There has been a downward trend of exceedances against Air Quality Standards Regulations 2010 in England across 2017-2022. 

• The percentage of monitoring stations above an annual mean PM2.5 concentration of 10μmg/m³ between 2018 and 2023 has shown a downward trend. 

• The UK’s PM2.5 exposure indicator has also showed a downward trend since 2018. 

• The only clean air trend indicator to have shown no change is the exceedance of damaging levels of nutrient nitrogen deposition across England. 

There have been improvements in trends of PM2.5 across the UK compared to the previous progress report, with the other indicators showing the same rate of progress. UK emissions of PM2.5 showed no change in last year’s report, whereas this year’s progress report shows an overall decreasing improvement. 

Decreasing improvement is the lower of the two positive improvement indicators used by the OEP in their progress report. This means that there has been improvement over the last year, although it has shown signs of slowing.  

Table 3.3 provides a summary of the UK’s progress towards meeting targets stipulated in Acts and, regulations, and commitments. 

Targets from the Environment Act 2021 are both reporting mixed progress in the last year, and all other targets and commitments showed limited progress in the last year. As this progress assessment is over the last year, they differ somewhat from prospects of meeting targets and commitments. 

Table 3.4 shows the UK’s progress towards the same aforementioned targets, specifically focusing on overall prospects. This views our progress in the long term, assessing trends beyond (while still including) the last year. Both Environment Act 2021 targets – annual mean level of PM2.5 in ambient air equal to or less than 10µg/m³ and at least a 35% reduction in population exposure to PM2.5 (compared to 2016-2018 baseline period) by December 2040 – are largely on track 

Domestic combustion progress 

The progress report begins its clean air assessment by acknowledging how both Environment Act 2021 PM2.5 targets are likely to be met, based on current progress, and that progress has been made in reducing air pollution from domestic combustion. This progress is attributed to the successful implementation of most of the actions set out in the Clean Air Strategy 2019. 

Actions that have been implemented include: 

• Ecodesign regulations for solid fuel room heaters sold in the UK following 1 January 2022. 

• Ready to Burn certification through legislation in England. 

• Smoke control area legislation amendments granting local authorities the legislative powers to issue fines. 

• Emissions restrictions in smoke control areas only permitting less-polluting appliances burning quality fuel to be used. 

• The Defra-led Burn Better communication campaign. 

The effectiveness of government’s communication campaigns and other similar resources is questioned by the OEP. While it is positive that the commitments – advice on both indoor and unregulated outdoor burning – outlined in the EIP23 were completed, the quantitative impact is unclear. The lack of clarity in determining how these communication campaigns and relevant resources affected emissions is questioned. 

The minimal amount of funding made available through the Small Business Research Initiative (which would be used to help develop products that reduce emissions from domestic burning and agriculture) is also criticised and the OEP consider the £2 million available to be ‘relatively small’. 

Further, the lack of clarity in determining how home burning campaigns and educational resources performed and their effectiveness in improving behaviours is questioned. The delay to the Air Quality Information System Review and the Air Quality Digital Services Project is also discussed. The report was scheduled to be published in 2024 but has yet to release, inhibiting research into how air quality information can be communicated to the public and research into how the public’s access to information can be improved. 

Future improvements 

The OEP’s report highlights two key areas that could be focused to further improvement: a shift away from the least efficient, most polluting appliances and effective, accessible communications to both educate stove users on how to burn responsibly and understand air quality information. 

The prospect of ‘change of property ownership schemes’ is given as an example of how government could incentivise households to replace outdated, high-emissions stoves with modern, efficient appliances. This would apply to ‘non-compliant’ stoves, which would aid progress in moving solid fuel users away from open fires or outdated stoves towards highly efficient appliances. 

Effective communications campaigns that educate users on best practices through expert-led education, supported by the completed comprehensive review of how air quality information is publicly communicated would underpin the example idea of incentivising a move away from old, outdated, highly polluting appliances. 

It is vital to remember that a stove is only as good as the fuel it is fed (and how it is fed it). Stove incentive programmes would significantly benefit from expert-led, effective communication campaigns. Through this, households would be able to burn better in their modern stoves, significantly reducing their emissions (while increasing their heat output) in comparison to previous use. 

Difficulties that local authorities face when trying to implement national regulation changes is noted in the progress report. While Defra have taken ownership of educating local authorities to remove gaps in knowledge and understand how they can be better supported in enforcing national regulation at a local level. However, the report notes that, while the work undertaken by Defra – such the seminars and factsheets – is welcome, they ‘do not constitute a formal, comprehensive audit’ as was committed to in the EIP23. 

The role of HETAS 

HETAS has been pivotal in continuing to reduce domestic burning emissions, improve air quality, and promote the best available technologies. 

The HETAS Cleaner Choice scheme sets the benchmark for lower emissions in appliances. All Cleaner Choice appliances are independently and robustly verified to not produce – at least – 50% less PM2.5 emissions than the legal requirements in smoke control areas, but they also provide consumers with easy-to-understand, straightforward instructions, ensuring that they can easily burn optimally. 

The Ready to Burn scheme, administered by on behalf of Defra by our sister company Woodsure, ensures that only wood fuel in England with a moisture content of 20% or less can be sold for domestic, eliminating the sale of wet wood which produces significantly higher amounts of emissions. 

The HETAS Advice Hub and all HETAS registrants play an important role in keeping stove users informed on the optimal ways to use their stoves. By providing safety advice, burning tips, and much more, stove users across the UK can confidently burn responsibly, minimising their emissions while increasing the warmth of their homes. 

HETAS and Woodsure work with all UK government and devolved administrations, utilising our knowledge and expertise to provide impartial, independent advice and guidance. This work encompasses a multitude of areas such as safety, regulations, fuel quality, and compliance to help create a cleaner, safer, and more sustainable environment. 

We await government’s ‘rapid review‘ of the Environmental Improvement Plan, due to have been completed by the end of 2024. Read more about the OEP’s advice to the government regarding this review in their correspondence.