Farmers, landowners, firefighters and a cross-party group of MPs are calling for a temporary ban on disposable barbecues across England and Wales as wildfires continue to ravage every region of the UK, with an estimated 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres) already burned in 2026 The Guardian.

The coalition backing the ban includes the Liberal Democrats and many Labour MPs, alongside the National Farmers' Union (NFU) and the Country Land and Business Association (CLA). Jon Pearce, the Labour MP for High Peak in Derbyshire, has written directly to retailers asking them to stop selling disposable barbecues. The campaign draws together groups that have pressed for similar measures in prior years, but the scale of this year's fire activity has given the call fresh urgency.

Wildfires have affected every UK region in 2026. The estimated 20,000-hectare toll spans arable land, upland grazing and protected habitats, compounding what has already been a difficult season for growers. Tompkins, deputy president of the NFU, said wildfires were an urgent concern for farmers as they counted the cost of lost or poor harvests. He called for retailers to remove disposable barbecues from sale and for local authorities to issue public space protection orders (PSPOs) prohibiting the lighting of barbecues, campfires and camping stoves on open land.

PSPOs are civil orders available to councils in England and Wales that can restrict activities carrying a significant risk of harm. Both the NFU and the CLA have pointed to PSPOs as the most practical mechanism for local enforcement, since there is no single UK law that automatically bans bonfires or disposable barbecues when a drought has been declared The Times. Councils must act individually, creating a patchwork of restrictions rather than a uniform prohibition.

Most major UK supermarkets, including Tesco, Sainsbury's, Morrisons and ASDA, removed disposable barbecues from their shelves following an earlier CLA campaign. Some have maintained that voluntary suspension for years. But the barbecues remain widely available in smaller independent shops, some hardware and DIY stores, and through online retailers, which the campaign groups argue undermines the voluntary approach and necessitates formal intervention.

The NFU has warned that in dry weather a discarded disposable barbecue can quickly start a fire, and that fires can spread rapidly across dry land. The CLA ran a dedicated campaign calling for an immediate ban on the sale of disposable barbecues, and has separately noted that councils can introduce PSPOs covering barbecues, campfires and camping stoves to reduce wildfire risk. BBC News reported in May 2026 that a wildfire warning had been issued over disposable barbecues and that calls had been made for a ban in the capital BBC News.

The demand is not new. In July 2022, London's fire commissioner joined calls for a total national ban after disposable barbecues were blamed for starting wildfires across England. The CLA issued its call for an immediate sales ban the following month. The NFU published a statement reminding the public to act responsibly the same summer. Each successive heatwave and dry spell has revived the campaign, but no government has yet legislated a comprehensive ban.

The broader context here is one of escalating wildfire exposure meeting a regulatory framework designed for a cooler, wetter climate. The UK has no statutory mechanism that triggers automatically when drought conditions elevate fire risk, leaving enforcement to individual council discretion through PSPOs or byelaws. That gap means that even when meteorological risk is well forecast, the legal tools available to prevent ignition are discretionary and inconsistent across jurisdictions. The voluntary retail withdrawals, while significant in covering the largest distribution channels, cannot capture the long tail of small retailers and online sellers that keep the products in circulation.

For farmers, the stakes compound. Wildfire damage to standing crops, hedgerows, fencing and grazing land comes on top of already poor harvests, and insurance recovery for fire damage on rural land is often slow and partial. The NFU's framing, tying barbecue regulation directly to food-security outcomes, reflects an agricultural sector that increasingly sees climate-driven wildfire not as an episodic inconvenience but as a structural risk to production. Whether this year's campaign yields legislative action or follows the pattern of past calls fading with the next rainfall cycle is the question Westminster and the devolved administrations in Cardiff will face in the coming weeks.