The Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) has warned that overheating is no longer a peripheral comfort problem but a growing building‑safety issue that demands policy attention. According to the original report, the association says the UK’s exceptionally hot, sunny and dry summer—described by the Met Office as among the warmest on record—has coincided with heat‑related mortality in urban areas, underscoring how acute and prolonged heat can turn into a direct threat to life. Imperial College London researchers have estimated several hundred excess deaths in London linked to the June heat, a reminder of the human cost behind the statistics.

Kevin Morrissey, BESA’s technical director, told ProjectScot that this summer’s pattern—less about single, dramatic peaks and more about “much longer and more relentless periods of heat stress”—signals a shift in the baseline climate that buildings must be designed to withstand. The Met Office’s provisional analyses for early summer 2025 show unusually high minimum temperatures and above‑average sunshine across England, with regional rainfall deficits amplifying urban heat stresses; climate scientists warn that such persistent warmth is likely to become more common as the climate changes.

The health implications are stark. Rapid attribution and health‑impact analyses led by researchers at Imperial’s Grantham Institute estimate roughly two to three hundred excess heat‑related deaths in London for the June–July event, with a substantial fraction of that burden attributable to human‑driven warming. Independent modelling published by University College London and others projects a steep rise in annual heat‑related deaths across England and Wales over coming decades unless adaptation is substantially improved; under higher‑warming scenarios and with demographic shifts such as an ageing population, annual fatalities could reach into the thousands by mid‑century. Campaign groups mapping local exposure have identified almost 5,000 English neighbourhoods that already face recurrent heat stress, including many containing care homes and hospitals, highlighting concentrated vulnerability.

BESA is pressing for concrete technical and policy responses. The association argues that a mix of passive measures (shading, insulation combined with ventilation, green infrastructure) and mechanical cooling should be mobilised, and it has urged changes to the UK’s Boiler Upgrade Scheme so that funded heat‑pump installations support both heating and cooling where appropriate. According to reporting by industry outlets, BESA says targeted financial support will be needed to ensure vulnerable households benefit from low‑carbon cooling technologies rather than being left behind by retrofit programmes that have so far prioritised heat loss reduction.

At the same time, professional bodies warn against narrow fixes. The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers has long argued that overheating must be treated within building regulations through a holistic, year‑round design approach and robust performance assessment. Their position notes the paradox that greater uptake of mechanical cooling—without careful design and efficiency standards—could conflict with decarbonisation goals, so solutions must combine passive resilience, ventilation strategies and careful system control to protect both health and energy targets.

BESA also highlights a consequence of recent retrofit drives: the widespread fitting of more airtight, fire‑resistant insulation can, unless counterbalanced by improved ventilation or cooling, raise indoor temperatures and humidity and degrade indoor air quality. “Overheating is the most overlooked building safety issue,” Morrissey said in comments to ProjectScot, stressing that measures designed to reduce heat loss and improve fire safety need to be reconciled with the imperative to keep indoor spaces safe in summer heat.

The policy implications are clear and immediate. Campaigners and experts alike call for building standards and retrofit programmes to explicitly include overheating risk assessments, for nature‑based cooling and targeted support in heat‑vulnerable neighbourhoods, and for funding mechanisms to enable low‑carbon cooling for care settings and at‑risk households. BESA’s appeal to revise funding schemes to permit cooling‑capable heat pumps crystallises a wider need: adaptation must sit alongside decarbonisation rather than trailing behind it.

If policymakers are to heed the warnings from the Met Office and multiple research institutions, the next steps should combine regulatory change, targeted investment, and performance‑based retrofit practice so that homes and public buildings are resilient to hotter summers without compromising the UK’s net‑zero ambitions.

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Source: Noah Wire Services