Present woodfuel usage in Britain is negligible. Historically, Britain has been fortunate in having abundant coal, oil and gas. At an EU level, biomass is seen as an important element of energy, environment and agriculture/forestry policy. In the European context, biomass is taken to include agricultural and industrial wastes in addition to forest woodfuel, and it is regarded as a potential source of heat, fuels and electricity. In the UK, energy policy as a whole is based on four considerations-environment, energy reliability and security, affordability for the poorest in society and competitive pricing for businesses, industries and households. Within UK policy, the dominant driver for greater use of biomass as a renewable source of energy is climate change mitigation; energy security is an emerging driver; all other potential benefits of biomass as a renewable resource are of limited significance. At the moment, the UK focus is narrower than in Europe. National targets are set only for electricity generation. Furthermore, expansion of energy crops, which are defined in the major regulations as 'crops planted since 1989 and grown primarily for the purpose of being used as a fuel' and, therefore, do not include material from extant forests, is seen as the main way to ensure energy security and minimise carbon expended to transport the raw material to the point of end use. Nevertheless, woody biomass from forests, sawmills, urban areas and transportation corridors is already available in vastly greater quantities than 'energy crops'. At a regional and local scale, global environmental issues are of lower relative importance and a much wider range of potential benefits tend to be taken into consideration. For example, the economic benefits of woodfuel heating in areas without connections to the gas grid have been an important consideration in the steady increase in woodheat developments. In other areas where there is a less obvious financial driver, rural development is a powerful determinant of support for woodfuel projects. Crown Copyright (c) 2005 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.