diff --git a/autogenerate_config_docs/autohelp.py b/autogenerate_config_docs/autohelp.py
index 6a7d1999..1f4b8e4e 100755
--- a/autogenerate_config_docs/autohelp.py
+++ b/autogenerate_config_docs/autohelp.py
@@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ IGNORE = ['trove.guestagent.datastore.postgresql.manager',
           'trove.guestagent.datastore.postgresql.service.users',
           'trove.guestagent.datastore.postgresql.service.database']
 
-BASE_XML = '''<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+BASE_XML = '''<?xml version="1.0"?>
 <para xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
   version="5.0">
 <!-- Warning: Do not edit this file. It is automatically
diff --git a/autogenerate_config_docs/extract_swift_flags.py b/autogenerate_config_docs/extract_swift_flags.py
index 730f1a89..06dcfb6b 100644
--- a/autogenerate_config_docs/extract_swift_flags.py
+++ b/autogenerate_config_docs/extract_swift_flags.py
@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ from autohelp import OptionsCache  # noqa
 
 DBK_NS = ".//{http://docbook.org/ns/docbook}"
 
-BASE_XML = '''<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
+BASE_XML = '''<?xml version="1.0"?>
 <para xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook"
   version="5.0">
 <!-- The tool that generated this table lives in the