{"id":669158,"date":"2026-07-02T04:23:36","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T04:23:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/669158\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T04:23:36","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T04:23:36","slug":"health-warning-issued-as-more-than-1-million-children-in-uk-living-in-overheated-homes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/669158\/","title":{"rendered":"Health warning issued as more than 1 million children in UK living in overheated homes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Your support helps us to tell the story<\/p>\n

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n

Your support makes all the difference.Read more<\/p>\n

Almost 1.6 million children<\/a> in England<\/a>, including more than 70,000 babies<\/a>, are currently living in homes that regularly overheat, prompting campaigners to demand “urgent action” to ensure safe indoor temperatures<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The National Housing Federation<\/a> (NHF) has warned that with increasingly frequent warmer weather, it is becoming “impossible” for parents<\/a> to maintain comfortable living conditions for their families.<\/p>\n

This alarming situation is projected to worsen, as the Climate Change Committee<\/a> has previously suggested that up to 92% of existing homes could eventually overheat. <\/p>\n

They predict that by the middle of the century, the UK\u2019s climate<\/a> “will be much more extreme than today”. <\/p>\n

Charities and campaigners have spent the week highlighting the severe dangers of extreme heat to vulnerable individuals, such as the elderly and young children, urging the public to take precautions as temperatures climb into the high 30s.<\/p>\n

But Kate Henderson, chief executive of the NHF, said it is \u201cnow clear that increasingly extreme heatwaves<\/a> are making it impossible for parents, whatever they do, to make their homes completely safe and comfortable\u201d indicating that steps such as drawing the curtains to keep homes cool are no longer enough.<\/p>\n

\"SevenSeven in 10 parents said an overheated home disrupts their children\u2019s sleep (PA)<\/p>\n

Some 1.59 million children live in homes that get uncomfortably hot, according to NHF and Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) analysis of the 2023 English Housing Survey.<\/p>\n

Of these, 70,690 are under the age of one.<\/p>\n

Separate polling of 1,592 parents in England found seven in 10 said an overheated home disrupts their children\u2019s sleep, while almost half (49%) said it affects their children\u2019s ability to concentrate.<\/p>\n

The NHF said the YouGov polling it commissioned showed the \u201csignificant impacts\u201d on children\u2019s quality of life when living in an overheated home.<\/p>\n

Ms Henderson added: \u201cThese survey results show that overheating is already affecting large numbers of children, disrupting their sleep, harming their health and putting the youngest babies at particular risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs heatwaves become more frequent and more intense, we need urgent action to ensure homes can be kept at safe temperatures and are fit for the future. Housing associations are taking this seriously and are already building heat resilience into their homes, but they cannot do it alone.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re calling on ministers to work with the sector on a comprehensive plan to tackle overheating in social housing and support landlords to retrofit cooling measures at scale and pace.\u201d<\/p>\n

The English Housing Survey figures cover all kinds of housing, not just social housing.<\/p>\n

The NHF and CIH said they wanted to highlight the risk to all homes and call for the Government to ensure existing plans to upgrade social housing address overheating.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe UK is currently experiencing a heatwave (PA)<\/p>\n

Gavin Smart, chief executive of the CIH, said: \u201cAs our summers get hotter, the ripple effects of this across our health and education systems will also continue to grow, with children\u2019s education impacted by disrupted sleep after spending all night in a bedroom too hot for them to sleep in.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ambition shown in the government\u2019s Warm Homes Plan is a necessary first step in the right direction, and we also need to think carefully about whether the 1.5 million homes we aim to build in this parliament will cope with the hotter temperatures we will increasingly see in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cCIH believes that we need to strengthen building regulations around overheating and start to consider policies that will support people with the energy costs of keeping cool during future heatwaves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Reyes Garcia, associate professor in structural engineering at the University of Warwick, said homes in Britain \u201care increasingly feeling like ovens\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThe secret to surviving future summers lies in rethinking how our homes are built and insulated all year round. We have to shift our focus from simply winter warming to summer cooling as well, so we can design homes that naturally resist heat waves.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr Chloe Brimicombe, a climate scientist from the University of Oxford, said UK infrastructure \u201cis not prepared for heat\u201d and plans must include \u201cprioritising cooling from heat pumps for the most vulnerable, such as care homes, hospitals and educational settings, designing heat safe policies with organisations and employees, and understanding how heat increases and planning for that increase in water consumption\u201d.<\/p>\n

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) advises that children can be at risk from hot weather because of their physiology, behaviours and activity levels and suggests cooling a child suffering from heat exhaustion by sponging or spraying them with cool water and putting cold packs on their neck and armpits, or wrapping them in a cool, wet sheet and using a fan.<\/p>\n

If heatstroke is suspected, parents are advised to call 999.<\/p>\n

The Government has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669159,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[102,2960,224042,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-669158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-healthcare","tag-health","tag-healthcare","tag-hot-homes-warningpa2026","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}