CROYDON COMMENTARY: We know many of the measures we as a society, as a nation and as a borough, need to take to deal with the kind of heatwave that we have endured this week. PETER UNDERWOOD says it is long past time that we started to take action
Croydon wasn’t designed for this weather.
Time for action: the Mayor of London has this week published another report on what needs to be done in the climate emergency
This week started with flash floods and lightning strikes as heat-driven storms swept across the south of England, leaving a trail of house fires and transport disruptions.
The week is ending with sweltering heat and school closures as temperatures hit levels deemed to be a serious threat to life. These record June temperatures follow record temperatures for May just a few weeks ago.
This isn’t just a matter of inconvenience or feeling uncomfortable. The extreme heat we saw in 2022 is estimated to have contributed to more than 300 premature deaths in London. The hot weather across three heatwaves that year also cost an estimated £1.5billion to the London economy.
The Heat Ready London report, published yesterday, estimates that there at least 1million homes, more than 1,300 schools, 60 hospitals and 350 care homes in the capital at high risk of overheating.
These impacts of hot weather are not felt equally. Risk is often greatest in densely developed and deprived areas, where higher temperatures and lower capacity to adapt can worsen the inequalities that already exist. Older people and those with medical conditions are also likely to suffer far more in the heat.
Inequalities: some sections of society are affected worse by the climate crisis
Our homes, our public buildings and spaces and our transport networks were all designed for a different time. Despite plenty of warnings, successive governments have refused to properly update planning guidance or introduce sufficient adaptations, so new buildings and infrastructure are often at least as bad in hot conditions as older ones.
Private companies running our public services have also failed to invest in the changes needed. So, for example, we have the ridiculous situation that within days of thunderstorms and flooding and after a particularly rainy February and March, we have South East Water announcing its first hosepipe ban of the year.
The Greater London Authority’s Heat Ready London report shows the scale of the problem and some of the solutions that are already available.
What we really need is action.
There are cities across the world in far hotter and wetter climates than ours that have developed innovative solutions, as well as implementing the sensible ideas we have known all along. From new designs in buildings to planting more trees in our streets. From improved public transport to installing more drinking fountains and “cool spaces” for people to shelter from the sun and heat. From ripping up concrete to create green soakaways, to retrofitting housing.
There is so much we can do.
We have seen a few of these implemented in a half-hearted way, but nothing like the level of action we need. It is more than six years since I was a member of Croydon’s new Climate Crisis Commission, intending to develop plans to cut Croydon’s contribution to the crisis and also adapt to the changes. Most of our recommendations have been ignored by successive administrations at Croydon Council. In some areas, the council has even gone in the opposite direction.
This has to change.
We cannot continue to ignore the evidence that we see with our own eyes.
The extreme weather we are seeing this week will continue to get worse, like the emergency it really is. We are past the point where we need yet another consultation or yet another action plan.
We need our council and our government to start delivering.
As we sit sweltering in yet another day of record temperatures, we need to start turning up the heat on our elected politicians.
- Peter Underwood was the Green Party’s candidate for Croydon Mayor in the May 2026 local elections
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