{"id":71662,"date":"2026-06-27T12:20:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T12:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/71662\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T12:20:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T12:20:14","slug":"how-the-uk-can-protect-cities-from-future-heatwaves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/71662\/","title":{"rendered":"How the UK can protect cities from future heatwaves"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the UK swelters under its second heatwave in as many months, many are finding that the places we live are not built to withstand the extreme weather.<\/p>\n

Reports over the last few days have seen MRI scanners failing and schools closing due to a lack of cooling systems and record-breaking June temperatures, making it clear that our infrastructure<\/a> is not coping.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, a rare red heat-health warning issued by the Met Office was extended to Friday night, covering South Wales, parts of the South of England and the Midlands. The warning has now been downgraded to amber to match the rest of the country and remains in place until tomorrow night.<\/p>\n

Nowhere is the health risk more pronounced than in the UK\u2019s cities, where the \u201curban heat island effect\u201d traps heat in buildings and built-up areas, meaning it can feel several degrees warmer<\/a> than the thermometer reading.<\/p>\n

The i Paper has asked experts from across industries to tell us how we can adapt all of the UK\u2019s cities to withstand the heat.<\/p>\n

Starting at home<\/p>\n

Heat Ready London, a report launched by Sir Sadiq Khan on Thursday as the UK recorded its second record-breaking hottest ever<\/a> June day in a row, sets out a vision for keeping the capital cool in the face of \u201cincreasingly frequent and severe heatwaves\u201d.<\/p>\n

The report<\/a>, which focuses on protecting the health of all Londoners but particularly those vulnerable to heat, such as young children and the elderly, identifies more than a million homes at risk of overheating, along with 1,300 schools, 60 hospitals and 351 care homes.<\/p>\n

\"AA person cools off with fresh water from a water fountain by the beach in Hove, on the south coast of England (Photo by Carlos Jasso\/AFP)<\/p>\n

Since 2008, new homes in London have had to be designed with cooling in mind. This was made into a national policy in 2021, suggesting the rest of the country should be looking to London for an indication of where we might be going with other heat-proofing measures.<\/p>\n

The Greater London Authority is now looking at how existing homes can be retro-fitted to make them cooler, focusing on \u201cshutters, insulation and ventilation, and air-conditioning\u201d.<\/p>\n

Chris Hocknell, director of Eight Versa which helps building companies to \u201cfuture-proof\u201d their projects, explained that making sure light and heat can\u2019t get in through windows is one of the most important ways to keep houses cool.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cIt\u2019s not just the air temperature that heats up space. It\u2019s also direct solar radiation, that\u2019s one of the worst things, because that carries much more thermal energy than air.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur European cousins have been doing this for centuries. If you go and look at houses in Spain, they have shutters,\u201d he said, explaining that we should expect windows on urban houses to look very different in a few years.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll probably have uPVC windows as opposed to timber ones, which certainly wouldn\u2019t have single glazing,\u201d he said. Special glass might also be used to reflect the sun away, which can look darker or green-tinged.<\/p>\n

\"TheReplacing timber with uPVC helps keep hot air out, as does double glazing the window panes (Photo: SolStock\/Getty)<\/p>\n

Insulation could be added to roofs to keep rooms on the top floor, which can be some of the hottest places in the house<\/a>, cooler.<\/p>\n

John Stubbs, founder of sustainable paint company YesColours, also pointed out that painting roofs a lighter colour can help reduce internal temperatures.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cTraditional dark roofs absorb solar radiation, whereas clean white roofs reflect up to 80 per cent of sunlight. This can decrease indoor temperatures by roughly 1\u00b0C to 5\u00b0C.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tree-lined streets and \u2018living walls\u2019<\/p>\n

The \u201cgreen over grey\u201d rule of thumb has been around among climate experts and urban planning professionals for a while, the idea being that trees and parks help to cool down surrounding areas whilst providing a shady refuge.<\/p>\n

In London, \u201cmanaging and expanding tree cover\u201d is a key part of the Heat Ready plan, including \u201cusing greening in or around buildings\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"TreeTree-lined streets provide shade for surrounding houses as well as pedestrians and drivers (Photo: Richard Newstead\/Getty)<\/p>\n

A \u201cliving wall\u201d of plants in Regent\u2019s Street, installed by Vertical Meadow, recorded a temperature 20\u00b0C below the street level on Thursday, which could prompt the installation of more of them across cities.<\/p>\n

Westminster City Council is now requiring greening on strategic construction sites across the borough, with cooling, biodiversity and improved public realm among the key benefits.<\/p>\n

\"\"During this week\u2019s heatwave, the installation showed to be up to 20\u00b0C cooler than street level (Photo: Vertical Meadow)<\/p>\n

Getting around in comfort<\/p>\n

Even if we succeed in cooling buildings in the UK\u2019s cities, residents will still need to get to and from work, school, and other places. At the moment, this is one of the highest-risk areas, with people collapsing on public transport or in the street due to heat exhaustion.<\/p>\n

While plans are in place in London to introduce air conditioning on more Tube lines and explore the use of \u201cheat-resistant materials\u201d, in other cities where transport isn\u2019t underground, the focus will be on cooling roads and pavements.<\/p>\n

\"Pavements,Pavements in London reach sweltering surface temperatures according to thermal camera footage captured for Greenpeace UK during the record-breaking heatwave (Photo: TI Thermal Imaging\/Greenpeace United Kingdom)<\/p>\n

\"Pavements,Pavements, Tube platforms and bus shelters across London reach sweltering surface temperatures according to thermal camera footage captured for Greenpeace UK during the record-breaking heatwave. (Photo: TI Thermal Imaging\/Greenpeace United Kingdom)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need fewer cars on our streets to bring down on-street temperatures, and much more tree cover, focusing on the most deprived and nature-deprived areas where residents and workers are at high risk,\u201d said Izzy Romilly, head of urban transformations at Possible, which campaigns to make environmentally friendly lifestyles accessible for all.<\/p>\n

\u201cRe-imagining how we use our roads and replacing car parking with trees, places to sit, community green spaces and bike parking are all part of the solution,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

What about air conditioning?<\/p>\n

A network of \u201ccool spaces\u201d<\/a> with air conditioning is already in place in London, similar to the \u201cwarm welcome\u201d programme showing places with central heating in winter, and there are plans to expand it to other cities, according to Emma Howard Boyd, Chair of the Independent National Heat Risk Commission.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is about making sure that people who are not cooling off in their homes have somewhere safe to go to lower temperatures,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The London plan mainly aims to use what are known as \u201cpassive\u201d cooling measures, such as improving air circulation, to reduce the need for \u2018active\u2019 measures such as air conditioning, which require electricity and therefore increase carbon emissions.<\/p>\n

This is unlikely to be enough to keep city-dwellers in the years to come, though, according to Chris Hocknell.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re designing a building, there\u2019s a point where you exhaust all your passive mechanisms for cooling and you switch to active,\u201d he explained. \u201cWe\u2019ve reached this limit now where the old, low-tech solutions are going to stop working \u2013 it doesn\u2019t matter how much you open a window, when you\u2019ve got 35\u00b0C air blasting in your face, you\u2019re going to be too hot.\u201d<\/p>\n

He thinks \u201canywhere that has vulnerable adults or children\u201d should get air conditioning installed as we move into a future where extreme heat becomes the norm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the UK swelters under its second heatwave in as many months, many are finding that the places…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":71663,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[602,23102,4832,27,721,5,6],"class_list":["post-71662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","tag-climate-change","tag-global-warming","tag-heatwave","tag-london","tag-sustainability","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116822044095105075","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71662"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71662\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}