Coal ban for domestic heating by 2023 to cut emissions
​
Cosy winter nights spent around a real glowing fire are set to be consigned to the history books with a ban on the sale of wet wood and coal for domestic use to be announced on Friday.
​
Wet wood – the cheap fuel behind the explosion in the sale of wood burners to the middle classes in recent years – is one of the biggest causes of harmful air pollution.
​
Coal, which also contributes to harmful air pollution, has warmed hearth and home for centuries.
​
The sale of coal for domestic use will be banned by 2023 the government will announce, in its bid to combat air pollution.
Ministers will also pledge to phase out the sale of wet (or unseasoned) wood as well as coal from 2021 onwards, in a move they say will help clean up England’s air quality. Both products will be completely banned by February 2023. But responding to the plans, coal merchants insisted that households burning coal could see a 30-50 per cent rise in the annual fuel bill.
​
Crackdown on wood burners
​
Wood burning stoves and coal fires are the single largest source of small particulate matter, which penetrates deep into the lungs and can cause serious respiratory problems.
Research suggests air pollution causes 40,000 early deaths a year.
​
The Government says its plans to ban two of the most polluting fuels for home burning, wet wood and coal, will help tackle the problem.
​
End of an era
​
The bans will end a centuries-long practice of burning coal to keep the hearth glowing. But Environment Secretary George Eustice insisted the change is necessary to reduce air pollution.
​
“Cosy open fires and wood-burning stoves are at the heart of many homes up and down the country, but the use of certain fuels means that they are also the biggest source of the most harmful pollutant that is affecting people in the UK,” he said. “By moving towards the use of cleaner fuels such as dry wood we can all play a part in improving the health of millions of people.”
​
Under the plans bagged house coal will be banned by February 2021, while the sale of loose coal direct to consumers from coal merchants will be banned by February 2023. The phase-out of wet wood will begin in February 2021, although it may remain on sale for some time after that to allow existing stocks to be used up, the Government said.
​
Price hike?
​
In both cases ministers insisted alternative fuels are available. Smokeless fuel’s initial cost is greater than regular house coal, but works out more cost-effective due to its longer burning rates and better heat output.
Coal merchants warned the legislation would hit the poorest hardest.
“The introduction of a ban on the sale of house coal would have an unintended, disproportionate impact on some of the most economically and socially vulnerable people in the UK, with a real likelihood of an increase in the severity of fuel poverty levels,” warned Nigel Yaxley, managing director of the Association of UK Coal Importers and Producers. He also warned the ban on coal could drive people to switch to wet wood, which emits more particulate matter and could therefore push up emissions.
​
Health benefits
​
But health campaigners were cheering the Government’s decision. “Today’s announcement on domestic burning is a welcome step forward, and will in time, play a role in reducing the pollution associated with PM2.5,” said Professor Stephen Holgate, special advisor on air quality for the Royal College of Physicians.
​
“Inhaling combustion particles from any source is harmful, but more so than ever when it’s directly within your home,” he said. “Burning coal for heat and power has to stop and strong guidance is needed to insist that if wood is burnt in approved stoves, it is non-contaminated and dry.”