UK100 has submitted a response to the National Heat Risk Commission’s call for evidence. The Commission, hosted by the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science, is gathering evidence on how the UK can improve resilience to extreme heat, the country’s deadliest climate-related health risk.

The submission draws on UK100’s research and our members’ experience after the UK’s hottest summer on record. It highlights that local and strategic authorities are at the frontline of the response through planning, housing, public health, social care, highways and green space, yet carry that responsibility without a clear statutory duty, without dedicated funding and outside the National Adaptation Programme’s accountability framework.

It outlines key priorities for heat resilience:

A statutory role for local government: Local, combined and strategic authorities should have a duty to contribute to the National Adaptation Programme, backed by new-burdens funding.

Long-term, non-competitive funding: Heat resilience needs multi-year revenue and capacity funding, not just competitive capital bids, with the Treasury fully counting avoided losses and wider benefits.

Safe indoor temperatures: A defined maximum temperature standard for care settings, and shared local government asks on maximum temperatures in workplaces, schools and health settings, would give providers, inspectors and councils a common benchmark.

Homes that stay safe in summer: Heat resilience should be built into the Warm Homes Plan from the outset, with installation standards and redress covering overheating, and updated guidance on external shading and passive cooling.

Local data and communications: Councils need local data, timely attribution and a national-to-local communications infrastructure to prepare residents and counter myths during heatwaves.

Targeting those most at risk: Support should be directed at older people, care home residents and low-income households, who are hit hardest by extreme heat.

Overall, UK100 called for heat resilience to be planned and resourced with the seriousness already given to flood risk, with responsibility made explicit whatever the final shape of devolution and local government reorganisation.

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