Labour’s environmental policies were under fire last night after England and Wales matched a record annual total for wildfires.
A total of 1,017 blazes have swept across the two nations so far this year — already equalling the figure recorded across all of 2025, which had been the worst year on record.
As temperatures are forecast to climb to 38C today, campaigners claim the Government has failed to heed warnings that its land management policies have left large areas of the countryside dangerously vulnerable to fire.
Critics argue that Labour’s rewilding agenda, which promotes allowing nature to develop with minimal human intervention, has led to a significant build-up of dry vegetation that can ignite rapidly during heatwaves.
For generations, gamekeepers and farmers carried out controlled burning of heather and grasses during cooler months, a practice intended to clear old growth and encourage fresh shoots for grouse and sheep to graze.
But last year Labour widened restrictions on the practice, extending curbs on burning across 1.6million acres of land.
The Government has said the measures, aimed particularly at peatlands, are designed to improve air quality while protecting the environment and public health.
Jonathan Roberts, of the Country Land and Business Association, said: ‘Last year was the worst on record for wildfires, yet ministers responded by making it harder for land managers to carry out the controlled burning necessary to stop wildfires taking hold in the warmer months.
Firefighters battling a wildfire at Dunwich Heath, near Leiston in Suffolk, on July 30. There is no suggestion this fire was as a result of rewilding
Drivers were ordered to abandon their vehicles and walk down the side of the A31 when the fire took hold on Sunday afternoon. There is no suggestion this fire was as a result of rewilding
‘Government has in effect banned the single-most important method of preventing wildfires, and we are now living with the consequences. Put simply, they must reverse the policy immediately.’
His concerns are echoed by the Countryside Alliance, which said ministers had made a ‘foolish decision’.
‘Moorland communities are facing increasing challenges, the Government having recently more than trebled the area over which the controlled burning of vegetation is effectively banned in our uplands,’ it said.
‘The Countryside Alliance has repeatedly warned that by ignoring the latest scientific evidence, the Government is significantly increasing the risk of catastrophic wildfires.’
The warnings came as more than 100 firefighters tackle a major blaze in the New Forest that has raged for four days.
Numerous other fires around the country have stretched resources, with crews in South Wales yesterday describing ‘carnage’ as they battled seven separate blazes, some of which they believe were set maliciously.
Andy Burnham last night called on shops to stop selling disposable barbecues, which he said were behind many of the blazes. He hinted at a summertime ban in the future.
Lord Botham, a vocal critic of rewilding, urged the Prime Minister to take ‘decisive’ action and place the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), which manages the policy, into special measures for ‘reckless incompetence’.
The blaze tore through hundreds of acres of heathland and forced fire chiefs to declare a major incident. There is no suggestion this fire was as a result of rewilding
‘Our wildfire crisis is man-made. It is the result of dreadful policy mistakes repeated year after year,’ the former England cricket captain said.
‘For two decades we have added far too much vegetation to our landscape and are now suffering the inevitable consequences. Unless Andy Burnham acts decisively there will be fatalities.’
Natural England insists heather burning damages carbon-storing peat and it instead promotes mechanical cutting – but critics say while this reduces the so-called fuel load, it leaves ignitable materials behind.
‘The winter burns used to create firebreaks. Now we have huge expanses of continuous, ageing vegetation. The result is disaster after disaster,’ Lord Botham wrote in a newspaper.
‘The new winter burning season is due to start on October 1. The Prime Minister has only weeks to reverse last year’s ban and get these preventative winter burns restarted.’
Andrew Gilruth, of the Moorland Association, said: ‘Rewilding sounds like a good idea, unless you end up facing a wall of flames.
‘We simply have far, far too much vegetation covering our landscape and until we reverse rewilding, the wildfires will get worse and worse.’
Defra said its policies were a ‘long-term’ solution.
A spokesman said: ‘Peatland restoration is the most effective, sustainable, and long-term solution for reducing fuel load on degraded peatlands, as wetter, healthy-functioning peatlands hold more water in the landscape for longer and are more resilient to the impacts of wildfire.’
