UK households who have fireplaces face £1,300 fine for lighting it this autumn

UK households who have fireplaces face a £1,300 fine for firing it up in the next few weeks. As the weather takes a turn for the chilly, and autumn properly takes hold up and down the UK, households have been warned to brace for financial penalties.

If you live in a Smoke Control Area, you cannot release smoke from a chimney and you can only burn authorised fuel, unless you use an appliance approved by Defra (also known as an ‘exempt appliance’ or ‘Defra approved appliance’), the government warns.

You may have to pay a penalty of up to £300 if your chimney releases smoke in a smoke control area. You can be fined up to £1,000 if you buy unauthorised fuel to use in an appliance that’s not approved by Defra, too, the government says.

READ MORE Drivers refunded after being 'wrongly charged' due to camera position

English councils only issued 17 fines over six years despite over 18,000 complaints. And the government has now instructed local authorities to consider using powers in the 2021 Environment Act to issue on-the-spot civil penalties.

For the most persistent offenders, councils will also be able to pursue criminal prosecutions that could result in a fine of up to £5,000, as well as an additional £2,500 for every day the breach continues. Andrea Lee, from the charity, said: “Pollution from wood-burning is a growing source of fine particulate matter pollution in some areas, which is a serious threat to people’s health.”

Up to 38,000 people die prematurely in England each year because of dirty air, with air pollution posing a significant public health threat. In 2022 new laws came into force that mean the type of log burner you can buy and what you put in them matters if you are to avoid paying a hefty fine.

It follows after a man was fined by Cheltenham Magistrates' Court for burning materials which contained toxic chemicals such as paints and creosote, which give off emissions harmful to humans, animals and the environment.