Heather Burning Rules - Clarification on Existing Agreements
- Andrew Gilruth
- Sep 15
- 3 min read
Many members will have seen our recent post highlighting the chaos created by Defra’s rushed change to the heather burning regulations. Since then, we have pressed Defra for urgent clarification on how the new peat depth rules will apply in practice. We now have some answers.
What Defra Has Confirmed
Existing consents remain valid – if you already hold a consent that references the old 40cm threshold, it remains valid until its normal expiry or review date. The new 30cm rule does not apply retrospectively.
Natural England staff are aware – Defra has confirmed that NE teams have been told existing consents are unaffected. Those consents are still needed for burning on designated sites.
Interaction with agri-environment agreements – if you obtain a Defra Heather and Grass Burning (HGB) licence under the new 30cm rules, you may still need to seek a minor temporary adjustment (MTA) from the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) to ensure you are not inadvertently breaching Countryside or Environmental Stewardship prescriptions. The RPA will be issuing updated letters to agreement holders shortly.
The Problems Remain - And They Are Unacceptable
The new Defra online application system for licences will not even be available until 30 September 2025, the day before the start of the burning season.
Defra’s plans effectively impose a three-month burning ban, because even in the best-case scenario Defra expects to take up to 12 weeks to process an application. That assumes the new digital system works on day one, that the promised templates are live, and that the guidance is clear. Members will rightly view that as wholly unrealistic.
Land managers are still being told they may need to juggle Defra licences, Natural England consents and RPA scheme adjustments, whilst also trying to deliver practical wildfire prevention and habitat management.
The guidance itself makes clear that Defra can still issue a licence where burning may cause damage to a SSSI if the government’s wider statutory duties (for example, reducing wildfire risk or protecting public safety) take precedence. Yet how this balance will be struck in practice remains completely unclear.
Adding Insult to Injury
The earliest Defra has agreed to meet us is 25 September. A delay to accommodate staff holiday plans. Had Defra conducted an appropriate consultation in the first place, it would already have been aware of the complexity of these changes and ensured senior staff were available to answer questions. It is almost as if Defra simply doesn’t care.
By failing to provide clarity, Defra’s plans will increase fuel loads in the uplands. This will directly raising the risk of devastating wildfires in the future. If that happens, the government may soon face serious legal questions about whether it has properly fulfilled its statutory duties to protect communities and public safety. We are actively exploring whether this failure to mitigate wildfire risk exposes Defra to legal challenge.
Where We Are Now
We will use the 25 September meeting to press for national guidance that ensures consistency across the country. We will make the case that members need certainty and simplicity.
In the meantime, members can take some comfort that:
Existing consents are still valid.
A Defra licence, if granted, provides legal cover to burn under the new rules.
Any conflict with Stewardship prescriptions can be dealt with through RPA’s minor adjustment process.
But let us be clear: Defra’s plans remain completely unacceptable. They have created unnecessary confusion, imposed an effective burning ban at the very start of the season and left land managers in limbo.
We are working with legal experts to design a survey to gather the practical and economic impact of these new regulations on moorland managers. Please start thinking about the direct impact a three month ban and what evidence you might collate. The stronger the evidence base, the harder it will be for Defra to ignore the consequences of its own policy.
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