These heatwaves are grimly exposing the UK’s lack of resilience

The UK was wracked by record rainfall and flooding earlier in the year, hard to remember now in the midst of successive deadly heatwaves and mounting threats to food production due to drought.  

We have witnessed the disastrous impact our lack of preparedness has had over this summer, with schools closing early, trains cancelled and over 2,700 premature deaths in England and Wales from heat related causes over May and June.  

Resilience must be increased urgently, alongside climate action
The scale of these climate impacts will only worsen over the coming years, even as we bring greenhouse gas emissions down, unless more ambitious action is taken to increase resilience to them. This risk is also not borne evenly, as those on lower incomes and facing health problems are the most exposed. 

Fortunately, this is an area finally receiving national attention. Two very timely reports were published earlier this summer. With particular prescience, two days before the first heatwave hit this year, the Climate Change Committee (CCC) warned, in its landmark A well-adapted UK report, that heat, flooding and drought were the UK’s most significant climate risks. And, just after the second heatwave began in June, the Mayor of London’s Heat ready London plan was released, the capital’s first comprehensive city-wide heat resilience strategy.  

Over the past five months, the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for the Environment has held an inquiry, using written evidence and two oral sessions with experts in parliament, to answer the question ‘is the UK prepared?’ The evidence explored how prepared housing, critical infrastructure, nature and food production are to climate impacts, and the adaptations needed. It all pointed in one direction: the UK is not yet well adapted. 

The UK could struggle to maintain its food supply by 2030
The inquiry revealed that delivery needs to be urgently scaled up as the risks are rising. If it doesn’t happen, by 2050, 92 per cent of existing homes could suffer from overheating and drier summers will mean shortfalls in water supply of over five billion litres per day. Every day, it is becoming more and more evident that, as the CCC says, the UK is built for a climate that no longer exists. Government intelligence has warned that climate change and other sources of ecosystem collapse could mean the UK will struggle to maintain its food supply as early as 2030.  

Impacts will also have drastic consequences for nature, as one in six species are at risk of extinction as climate change fundamentally alters UK ecosystems. The UK is already one of the world’s most nature-depleted countries, with species decline of 19 per cent since monitoring began over five decades ago. 

The APPG’s inquiry findings have now been published and the message is clear; climate resilience must be at the heart of the new government. Although a National Adaptation Programme has been published every five years since 2013 to tackle these threats, it has never provided sufficient strategy or action, which is why only 16 per cent of voters believe the UK has made “good progress” on adaptation.  

The APPG’s report warns that successive governments have left the UK unprepared for the growing impacts of extreme weather on the NHS, the food system and people’s homes. It makes four main recommendations for stronger cross-government co-ordination and urgent action to prepare for the increasing risks to the country from flooding, extreme heat, drought, wildfires and food system disruption. It is now for the new administration to acknowledge and grasp this issue.  

 Is the UK prepared? was published by the APPG for the Environment on 24 July 2026. The report was made possible by the support of the APPG’s associate members. Find out more about becoming an associate member.