From cooling homes to shielding the vulnerable, a look at the capital’s new roadmap to survive a warming climate
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has officially launched Heat Ready London, a comprehensive strategic plan designed to adapt the city to the growing threat of extreme heat and a warming climate.
The launch comes as London faces an unprecedented June heatwave, marking only the second time in history the Met Office has issued a red warning for extreme heat in the capital. With the city currently identified as the hottest region in the UK, the new plan aims to coordinate action across six key sectors to protect residents and strengthen the city’s resilience.
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Six key sectors
Heat Ready London establishes a framework for collective action across the following sectors:
- Built Environment: Prioritising the retrofit of the highest-risk homes and non-residential buildings to prevent indoor overheating and expanding public shade.
- Business and Economy: Helping businesses adapt their practices and supply chains, and strengthening heat-resilience planning for large events.
- Emergency Preparedness, Resilience and Response: Enhancing community ‘cool spaces’ and improving the coordination of public communications during extreme heat events.
- Health and Care: Establishing a cross-system heat-health partnership to embed heat-risk management into care pathways and protect vulnerable populations.
- Green Space and Nature: Expanding tree canopy cover and green infrastructure to naturally cool urban areas, particularly in neighbourhoods with high heat risk.
- Infrastructure: Ensuring essential services – including transport, energy, water, and telecommunications – remain reliable during peak temperatures.
While the launch has been welcomed by experts, it has also sparked debate over the pace and scale of implementation. Eric Mackres of the WRI Ross Center for Sustainable Cities called the plan an important signal that adapting to extreme heat can no longer be an afterthought, adding that thriving cities will be those that build passive cooling into the fabric of everyday life through more trees, shade, and better-designed public spaces.
However, political figures have been more critical. Speaking to the Hackney Citizen, Green Party London Assembly member Zack Polanski praised the plan as an improvement over the government’s approach, but argued it lacks the funding, strict timelines, and immediate urgency required to meet the scale of the challenge.
Critics, including trade union representatives, have also expressed concern that the plan does not go far enough to address the protection of workers, specifically calling for legislated maximum working temperatures.
Building a resilient city
The report also highlights the significant financial challenge of heat adaptation, acknowledging a clear gap between current funding and the massive investment needed for large-scale, city-wide changes. Many adaptation measures – such as providing water fountains or supporting vulnerable groups – offer strong public benefits but low direct financial returns.
To bridge this gap, the plan calls for a multi-pronged approach that uses public funding to reduce risk and incentivise private investment, while working with partners to build a clear, costed pipeline of projects such as green infrastructure and building retrofits that can eventually attract institutional finance.
However, heat is now recognised as one of the most serious risks to not only London’s health but its economy, with the cost of inaction proving to be even higher than the price of adaptation. The severity of this challenge was highlighted by the 2022 heatwaves, which cost the city approximately £1.5billion. With productivity losses linked to high temperatures currently estimated at £577million each year, the economic burden of failing to adapt is set to escalate significantly.
