Overheated homes: why UK housing is dangerously unprepared for impact of climate crisis

Building rules have been focused on keeping warm in winter and saving on energy bills, not cooling down

• Low-income and minority ethnic people in England most at risk from dangerously hot homes

• From shutters to reflective paint: how to prevent UK homes overheating

Wondering what future British summers will be like, as the climate crisis unfolds? Clue: put away visions of sipping Yorkshire champagne on a Barcelona-style balcony. Think instead of stuffy, overheated homes making sleep impossible, droughts and floods that play havoc with infrastructure, and urgent health warnings for the old and very young.

“What we are facing is climate brutality. That is the reality of the hotter weather coming down the track,” says Simon McWhirter, the chief executive of the UK Green Building Council (UKGBC).