Almost 1.6 million children, including more than 70,000 babies, are living in overheated homes in England, according to campaigners, who have called for “urgent action” to ensure housing can be kept at safe temperatures.
The National Housing Federation (NHF) warned that with warmer weather becoming more frequent, it is becoming “impossible” for parents to ensure their homes are comfortable.
The Climate Change Committee has previously suggested that hotter temperatures could result in 92% of existing homes overheating, with a prediction that by the middle of the century, the UK’s climate “will be much more extreme than today”.
Charities and campaigners have been warning this week of the dangers to vulnerable people, including the elderly and young children, of extreme heat, with people urged to take precautions where they can as temperatures rise into the high 30s.
But Kate Henderson, chief executive of the NHF, said it is “now clear that increasingly extreme heatwaves are making it impossible for parents, whatever they do, to make their homes completely safe and comfortable” indicating that steps such as drawing the curtains to keep homes cool are no longer enough.
Some 1.59 million children live in homes that get uncomfortably hot, according to NHF and Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) analysis of the 2023 English Housing Survey.
Of these, 70,690 are under the age of one.
Separate polling of 1,592 parents in England found seven in 10 said an overheated home disrupts their children’s sleep, while almost half (49%) said it affects their children’s ability to concentrate.
The NHF said the YouGov polling it commissioned showed the “significant impacts” on children’s quality of life when living in an overheated home.
Ms Henderson added: “These survey results show that overheating is already affecting large numbers of children, disrupting their sleep, harming their health and putting the youngest babies at particular risk.
“As heatwaves become more frequent and more intense, we need urgent action to ensure homes can be kept at safe temperatures and are fit for the future. Housing associations are taking this seriously and are already building heat resilience into their homes, but they cannot do it alone.
“We’re calling on ministers to work with the sector on a comprehensive plan to tackle overheating in social housing and support landlords to retrofit cooling measures at scale and pace.”
The English Housing Survey figures cover all kinds of housing, not just social housing.
The NHF and CIH said they wanted to highlight the risk to all homes and call for the Government to ensure existing plans to upgrade social housing address overheating.
Gavin Smart, chief executive of the CIH, said: “As our summers get hotter, the ripple effects of this across our health and education systems will also continue to grow, with children’s education impacted by disrupted sleep after spending all night in a bedroom too hot for them to sleep in.
“The ambition shown in the government’s Warm Homes Plan is a necessary first step in the right direction, and we also need to think carefully about whether the 1.5 million homes we aim to build in this parliament will cope with the hotter temperatures we will increasingly see in the future.
“CIH believes that we need to strengthen building regulations around overheating and start to consider policies that will support people with the energy costs of keeping cool during future heatwaves.”
Dr Reyes Garcia, associate professor in structural engineering at the University of Warwick, said homes in Britain “are increasingly feeling like ovens”.
He said: “The secret to surviving future summers lies in rethinking how our homes are built and insulated all year round. We have to shift our focus from simply winter warming to summer cooling as well, so we can design homes that naturally resist heat waves.”
Dr Chloe Brimicombe, a climate scientist from the University of Oxford, said UK infrastructure “is not prepared for heat” and plans must include “prioritising cooling from heat pumps for the most vulnerable, such as care homes, hospitals and educational settings, designing heat safe policies with organisations and employees, and understanding how heat increases and planning for that increase in water consumption”.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) advises that children can be at risk from hot weather because of their physiology, behaviours and activity levels and suggests cooling a child suffering from heat exhaustion by sponging or spraying them with cool water and putting cold packs on their neck and armpits, or wrapping them in a cool, wet sheet and using a fan.
If heatstroke is suspected, parents are advised to call 999.
A Government spokesperson said: “Babies and young children are more vulnerable to the effects of heat and guidance is available on how to help keep your home cool.
“New residential buildings must now be designed to minimise unwanted heat from the sun and to allow windows to be open when it is cooler outside than inside to remove excess heat. We are also extending the boiler upgrade scheme grants for air-to-air heat pumps, which can cool as well as heat homes, so these low-cost options are more accessible.”
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