The call comes days after a report by Arup found that Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Islington and Camden were the parts of London most susceptible to overheating due to climate change.
The MPs also said that the government should check whether overheating mitigation measures are actually working within a year of their being introduced.
The authors said that cooling technologies such as air conditioning should be avoided, because of the increased demand for electricity ‘risking a vicious cycle of increased greenhouse gas emissions that in turn make the world even hotter’.
Ministers have already taken steps to combat this, with 2022 guidance for new-build homes requiring that developers include heat mitigation in new residential developments. That includes measures such as glazing measures to reduce unwanted solar gain and new levels of cross-ventilation.
Other cooling recommendations included encouraging ‘passive’ measures such as parks, trees, water bodies and green infrastructure in cities and towns. The MPs also want the government to appoint a ‘minister for heat resilience’ to co-ordinate efforts.
The RIBA, which gave evidence to the committee, welcomed the report and said it wanted to be involved in implementing the recommendations.
They said that a national drive to protect homes from overheating should be co-ordinated by local authorities, backed by appropriate funding.
Four out of five homes that will exist in 2050 are already built, meaning that the scale of retrofitting required for existing homes to protect them from overheating is vast. We consider that there are opportunities to combine existing initiatives on insulation and energy efficiency into a much more ambitious and comprehensive housing retrofit programme which also addresses the risks of overheating.
‘We hope the government urgently acts on these recommendations and utilises our professional expertise – architects are critical to the delivery of a sustainable more resilient built environment.’
The report suggests that the programme should be included in existing retrofit initiatives on insulation and energy efficiency, creating a ‘much more ambitious and comprehensive housing retrofit programme, which also addresses the risks of overheating’.
The increased frequency of heatwaves in the UK is a public health issue, leading to the deaths of some 4,500 people in 2022, the year when a temperature of 40°C was recorded in the UK for the first time.
Such an approach, if well designed and delivered, can minimise both cost and disruption while ensuring homes are energy efficient and remain comfortable to live in. We recommend a locally-led approach delivered via local authorities – which know their areas and communities best – backed with adequate long-term funding, and prioritising passive measures, and then fans, over ‘active’ cooling measures. Private finance will also be a key component in achieving retrofit on such a vast scale; we therefore call on the government urgently to bring forward proposals to encourage access to low-cost finance for householders following the consultation it carried out three years ago.