Today's heatwaves are an emergency but the UK just sticks its head in the sand

Sweltering temperatures harm the economy and cause thousands of deaths — the government needs a strategy to deal with this

- Martha Gill

Across much of the world, hot weather is a hazard. Brits, on the other hand, still tend to think of it as a treat. Newspapers usher in heatwaves with cheery headlines about “scorchers”.

Even when articles contain warnings, a recent study found, a third still accompany them with happy pictures of beachgoers eating ice cream. A Daily Mail piece reporting on heat deaths in Europe came with a picture of a smiling young woman by a city fountain, her top sporting the logo “hotter than wasabi”.

This ignores the truth: these days, heatwaves are an emergency. In 2022, our hottest summer yet, the weather led to 3,000 “excess deaths”; on average there are 2,000 of these a year - outstripping by far the numbers who die in car crashes. About 600 people are expected to have died as a result of last month's weather. It’s not just heatstroke and dehydration — during a heatwave there are increased suicide rates, too, and 10% more admissions for mental illness. And where heat rises, so does violence.

Heat also harms the economy, as sleepless employees slow down. Every year, heatwaves cost us between £260 and £300m. And things are only due to get more sweltering. By 2050, scorching summers will be about 60% more likely, which every year will cost up to £950m a year and kill an estimated 10,000.

Some of this could be mitigated if Britain wasn’t stuck in denial. Buildings in the UK, mostly designed before our modern spate of baking summers, are constructed to retain heat rather than let it out. As a result, half of homes are now at risk of overheating.