London’s risk from rising temperatures

I have just been searching online for the best kind of blinds for reflecting sunlight and radiant heat. It is not that easy. The usual 'thermal' blind fabric is silvery coloured but not very efficient at keeping heat and light out. The blinds that do reflect solar light and heat are prohibitively high cost.  Maybe the GLA and Mayor should engage with blind manufacturers and suppliers about improving thermal and solar blinds, while keeping costs down so that ordinary people can afford them. The information about these blinds could be more accurate and detailed too. 

Change council planning conditions to include mandatory white roofs, solar panels and green roofs. Is it India where painting roofs white has made a significant difference to keeping homes habitable in the increasing temperatures? Mayor Khan should work with council planning departments on new measures in planning requirements, so that cooler buildings are built.

City Hall, the Mayor - the climate resilience and heat risk plans need to be bigger and bolder, much bolder. Take a good look at what other cities do around the world. Developers and anyone refurbishing or building needs to take a radically different approach to the usual one that is producing endless inadequate buildings, badly thought-out. This must be dealt with, now. HAs and council must retrofit insulation and other measures into old blocks of flats and houses. Residents must be allowed to have air con and heat pumps. The air con etc industry needs a huge push to develop more efficient and quieter equipment that can be used in flats. Time to get a proper grip on making London habitable for climate change. 

I have no problems in the heat during the day time, except for on the tube. Nights can be terrible when its hot though. 

I think there should be public water drinking facilities eveywhere for everyone.

The most miserable part of living in London in a heatwave is how extremely uncomfortable public transport is, yet the survey didn’t provide an opportunity to discuss this. Both tube trains & buses are at times unbearable, & I’m sure close to being unsafe because of the heat & the effect on people’s health. 

Humidity has a big effect on how we feel. The same temperature in dryer climates is bearable.

However from what people have written, it gives the impression that there is still a lot to be learnt, so that one can acclimatise to the situation somewhat.

Perhaps evening classes, group discussions, more intense publicity both online and in paper format would help.  

People especially elders because of their age are at a disadvantage as to that of youngsters, who as they will have grown up in this situation it will be part of their life, similar to their use of computers.

Also lessons on the subject should be included in their timetables.

The learning also appears to be needed with the people who make the decisions as to how we live and how to make it more endurable.

More control of making decisions in this matter should be limited to those of a younger age who will have more years to live through the above position. Older people will still able to have their say, but only as consultants.

Based on all the suggestions made by others it would appear that implementation of anything acceptable should be done more quickly.

Don’t leave everything to experts in the matter and expect them always to come up with a solution.

Looking at the internet there are currently about 8.2 billion people living on this planet.

Therefore, everyone should be asked to think about the current situation and put forward any suggestion even though it might appear to be stupid.

If you don’t think about something it will never happen.  

I go out as little as possible when the heat goes above 30 as I am nearly 75 and vulnerable. I keep windows closed and have a curtain on the window that gets the sun. I keep my fan on during the day and early part of the night. I did this in 2022 and will do this again this year. There does need to be more fans in tube stations and on the tube. And on the buses. More planting is needed and more white painting on houses and flats.

I think we need to improve the public space sustainable planting and  water retention. I noticed  this week in a sudden storm, in a local park, water running off path but not into water storage area   

Trees need to be planted with open bowl for mulching and water retention as an example.

Parks could be used for garden inspiration of better planting for drought. 

One more point which occurs to me is that it’s cheap and easy to have permeable hard standing (I’m thinking of front gardens and ground level car parks). It’s been around for decades, in fact there are several versions including rubber hexagons made from recycled car tyres. Any material with holes in it will reduce runoff, slow water flow and flooding and hopefully take the pressure off the street drains. Thames Water  have not helped us Londoners, in fact they have done the opposite: water provision should be about conservation and management, not just delivery). 

I would like to see some proper work on greening streets even if it costs a few parking spaces. There a long street near me (Priors Croft, E17) that used to have trees. Several died from fungal diseases. Several more were ‘accidentally’ reversed into and died because the street has pavement parking. The contractors just paved all the tree holes over when redoing the pavement. It’s a furnace now. The council could easily shift some parking back on to the street (it’s more than wide enough) and remove a small number of total spaces in order to create proper plantings: trees plus shrubs and grasses protected by stone setts that would stop any car trying to back into it. The bottom of the street has also started to flood regularly thanks to extreme rainfall, so these be planting could be used to absorb that too. I don’t know if they need 50% of residents to support this activity (it’s public space and climate mitigation so I don’t see why they would) but it’s such a no-brained and yet the contractors just show up and tarmac everything because it’s not part of the job.  

We have been looking ways to use greenery to cool the house by keeping the sun from hitting the glass and brick of our terraced house. So we have star jasmine on a trellis growing up the east side and wisteria growing up the rear wall and along a trellis above the window — both of these put the glazing and brick in shade during the summer but have no effect during the winter (so light still comes in). We have also planted some trees further away but they will have less effect and take longer to be useful. 

Will probably have to add external shutters to the skylight and some of the top floor windows soon. And was thinking about solar panels on the roof to keep the sun from warming the tiles and rubber. 

It’s basically all ideas you’d get from a trip to Spain or France except we don’t want to paint the brick white. 

I work for a large organisation which employs thousands of people in London. My office building was built just after WW2 and some of the offices have been retrofitted with air con. Notwithstanding this and some of the other problems discussed here about coping in heatwaves, there is no information given out by my organisation about how to keep our buildings cool.  Nearly everyone believes that opening  windows to get a through draught is whats best when actually, and especially if you have aircon, closing all the blinds, windows and interconnecting doors and keeping in the cool air is what’s best. Hot air will always move to cold so if you have the windows open all youre doing is bringing in the super heated outside air into your office / room.  There is very little information out there in the public domain. A simple, timely education piece would go a long way into helping people cope with excessive heat.  

Living in a top floor flat in a new build block there is no ventilation in hot summers, you cannot get a cross breeze with open windows as they are all on the same side of the building and none of the windows open in communal areas. I lived in Australia for a while so am familiar with the idea to keep windows and blinds closed when its hotter outside than in but still my flat is 31 degrees when I come in from work. I have bought an air conditioner which helps a bit but in a small flat takes up a lot of space and is expensive to run and buy so many would not have that option. Its a housing association flat so I cannot make permanent alterations. Housing associations and developers must be forced to improve ventilation and summer cooling. I use my fan/air con from May to Sept so a significant amount of the year. 

for some reason I don't really suffer in the heat I drive my girlfriend to work she has her window down mine is always shut the fans are always off and just before I she gets out she shuts the window and I have a 35-45 minute drive home and i'm never without wearing a jacket I always have one on even in the hottest days

We are older people and found 2022 utterly unbearable and this summer even more so (because we're three years older). We both have heart problems and other health issues. Our 60s built house has large windows that face the sun from dawn to dusk. We don't have money for physical alterations outside, even if we were allowed them (we're not because of local rules) and no matter what we do inside (all the common sense things, plus heat-reflective film on windows, blinds, heavy curtains etc) have little effect. We are really struggling. 

I remember that 40+ heatwave and how ill- prepared London and the UK was and still is. Excessive and long running heat kills!  We need far more shade for our buildings and people- shop awnings to keep sun off, more planting, greenery. Education is needed to value water as a precious commodity for the future. UK has poor water storage and this will impact significantly in the future 

 Thinking back to the heatwave of 2022: 

• How did you cope with the heat in London?  

  I hated that summer heat! I am usually someone who will always prefer to be warm rather than cool but that summer was actually scary, I was starting to fear not being able to breathe the air because it was that hot it actually felt like the air was devolved of oxygen or something! It felt like there was nowhere safe to go or if there was it was getting there that presented a problem! I have no air con in my home, I can't afford air con and it's not helped by having windows covering all (top to bottom) or two of my external walls, the property was built in the '60s and is listed so can't be altered. I was seriously scared about fire risks, and too scared to go out. 

• What helped you stay cool at home or while you were out and about? 

Sprayed water, fans, ice poles pre-frozen in preparation, sleeping pills for night and moving very slowly only after 4pm if I had to go out, cancelling my day otherwise at great expense to myself. I was no good to anyone in that heat. 

• What made it better, and what made it worse?  

  It was worse not having aircon but I just don't have that sort of money, the most I could do is use my £15 fan and pour water on my chest, back and ankles to keep cold. 

Thinking of this summer:  

• What, if anything, are you doing differently to cope with the heat in London?

  It's not (yet) as hot as it was in '22. I don't know how I will cope if it gets that hot, I still don't have the money for any upgrades on a basic 25 year old electrical fan and water. I have a few long standing health conditions aside from the regular concerns so I do worry, but I don't think I can do anything more than I am doing. 

• What, if anything, does London need to help you cope with the heat? 

  Not run tubes if you know you can't keep the heat down. Allow people cool safe spaces and transport to get to them if they have not got their own cool spaces or transport to escape the heat. Health advice for dehydration.

I don't remember what we did in 22. Generally we follow the advice on keeping windows and curtains closed when it's hotter out than in. I use an umbrella a as a parasol. Drink plenty of water. Wear a hat outside. 

More trees would be good for lots of reasons. 

Also many more water fountains in the street. Big bottles of water are very heavy to carry and repeatedly buying small plastic bottles of water is bad in lots of ways (I am sure you know).

More cool environments where people could go (like the warm hubs in winter)

Perhaps more deliveries of food etc for vulnerable people but without the starting price being more than what many can afford.

Houses being built with heat as well as cold in mind.

And everyone to be encouraged to follow a predominantly plant-based diet as that contributes less to Climate Change.
 

Plant more trees, pedestrianise streets to discourage driving and encourage walking, cycling and wheeling. All new builds need better insulation against hot summers. Water usage needs to be brought to people’s attention - non watered public spaces with planting that is less reliant on water abundance. 

We need more flexibility in conservation areas. So many great ideas, but the overwhelming majority would not be possible if you live in a conservation area. And given that London has so many conservation areas, 14% of London homes, it feels wrong to leave all these homes out of planning.