Andy Burnham's council house revolution only works if we build homes fit to withstand the heat

Britain’s next generation of homes cannot be designed for the past. The biggest housing programme in decades is an opportunity to make climate resilience a national standard.

For the last decade, I have worked with cities and governments to prepare for the future. Increasingly, I have watched that future arrive before we are ready for it.

This summer’s heatwaves have shown more clearly than any government report what climate change now means for everyday life. More than 1,000 schools and nurseries closed or reduced hours as classrooms became too hot for children to learn. 

More than 2,600 train services delayed or cancelled as rail infrastructure built for another climate came under strain. Hospitals declared critical incidents because of overheating, equipment and IT failures, and researchers estimate that up to 4,000 operations could have been cancelled during the four hottest days of the heatwave. Meanwhile in London, no new air conditioned tube trains have been introduced for 10 years.

These are not isolated incidents or one-off disruptions. They are reminders that much of Britain was designed for a climate that no longer exists.

As ministers prepare to publish the latest UK State of Climate and Nature statement, they have an opportunity to change that. Climate resilience cannot remain an afterthought. It must shape how we build homes, schools, hospitals, transport networks and public spaces.

If this is to be an era of national upgrade, resilience must be the foundation on which it is built.

Previous generations built the infrastructure that transformed public health and economic prosperity. Our challenge is different but no less important. We need homes that stay cool in summer, greener streets that reduce dangerous heat, hospitals prepared for rising temperatures and transport networks that continue to function in extreme weather.

Housing is where this challenge becomes most urgent. The homes we build now will still be standing in the decades when climate risks intensify.

Andy Burnham’s ambition for a major expansion of council housebuilding offers an important opportunity. A programme of this scale should not simply address the shortage of homes; it should set a new standard for how Britain builds.

If we are going to build the homes of the future, they must be designed for the climate people will actually live through. New council homes should be resilient by design: able to stay cool during heatwaves, manage flood risk and support healthier communities. Climate resilience should become as fundamental to good housing as energy efficiency.

This is not an argument against growth. It is an argument for good growth.

A national housebuilding programme that puts resilience at its heart could become one of the defining achievements of the next generation. It would show that tackling the housing challenge and preparing for climate change are not competing priorities; they are the same mission.

Read more:

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• Heatwaves can be a unifying call to fight climate change but they are only widening UK inequality
• Revealed: Homeless people face ‘postcode lottery’ of support leaving them at risk in heatwaves

Burnham has argued that the strength of mayors lies in their ability to bring together housing, transport, infrastructure and public services around the realities of a changing climate. He is right. Climate shocks do not arrive in departmental silos, and our response cannot either.

Government must provide the long-term framework, investment and planning system, but resilient places are built locally. Councils, mayors and communities understand their neighbourhoods and are best placed to shape places that are healthier, greener and better prepared for the future.

London’s Heat Ready work shows what this can look like in practice: bringing together local government, health services, planners and infrastructure providers to prepare communities before extreme heat becomes a crisis.

That approach should not remain limited to one city. Every region should have a clear plan for managing rising temperatures and protecting vulnerable communities.

Britain already has the science, engineering expertise and local leadership needed to adapt. What has too often been missing is the political commitment to match the scale of the challenge.

The climate will continue to change. The question is whether our institutions change with it.

The homes, transport systems and public spaces we build over the next decade will determine whether people can continue to live safely and prosper as temperatures rise.

Future generations will judge us not by the risks we understood, but by whether we had the foresight to build a country ready for them.

Emma Howard Boyd is chair of the UK’s independent National Heat Risk Commission and a previous chair of the Environment Agency.

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