The government claims to understand rural reliance on wood burners, but its response to the Countryside Alliance’s concerns over proposals to impose stricter regulations proves otherwise. With stricter rules on the horizon, countryside households risk being left out in the cold while ministers press ahead with policies that could push many into fuel poverty.

Following the publication of the Environmental Improvement Plan 2025, the Countryside Alliance wrote to the Secretary of State, warning of the unintended consequences that stricter controls on wood-burning stoves could have for off-grid and rural homes. For many people in the countryside, wood burners are not a lifestyle choice or a fashionable accessory, but an affordable, reliable and often essential source of heat where mains gas is unavailable and alternatives are either prohibitively expensive or simply impractical.

While the government’s reply acknowledges that some people rely on solid fuel heating, it ultimately doubles down on its approach. By repeatedly framing domestic wood burning as a “major source” of harmful particulate pollution, the response signals that rural dependence on these stoves is viewed as a problem to be managed away, rather than a reality to be accommodated sensibly.

Crucially, the government offers no reassurance on transition timelines, exemptions or practical support. Instead, it points to future consultations and stakeholder engagement, a familiar refrain for rural communities who too often find themselves consulted after decisions are effectively made. Scotland’s experience should serve as a warning - policies that failed to reflect rural living led to public backlash and eventual U-turns. There is a real risk that England is heading down the same path.

The Countryside Alliance has consistently argued that environmental ambition must be matched with social and economic realism. That is why we have called for mandatory Rural Community Impact Assessments, as set out in our report Reconnecting government with the countryside. These assessments would test whether policies designed in Whitehall genuinely take account of the realities of rural life.

Rural people care deeply about the environment in which they live and work. But policies that risk pushing households into fuel poverty, or removing the only viable heating option without affordable alternatives, are not environmentally just. They are politically tone-deaf.

This response reinforces a wider concern, too many environmental policies are being imposed on the countryside with little consideration for the realities of rural life. Until the government starts designing solutions that reflect rural life, the sense of a growing war on the countryside will only deepen.