Climate Change Resilience
Tuesday, 13 October 2026
Contributions
Tom Rutland (East Worthing and Shoreham) (Lab)Labour
4. What recent progress she has made on improving the UK’s resilience to the impacts of climate change.
Anna Dixon (Shipley) (Lab)Labour
10. What recent progress she has made on improving the UK’s resilience to the impacts of climate change.
The Minister for Climate Transition (Katie White)Labour
My hon. Friends raise an excellent point. In June this year, I, alongside the Cabinet Office, launched a climate and nature security taskforce to assess our resilience. Its first meeting will take place next week, with external experts to challenge our preparedness. Sadly, this taskforce became even more relevant when this summer’s extremes enabled us to feel what scientists have been telling us for many years. The Prime Minister has also confirmed that he will host a wildfire summit this month.
Over the summer, my constituents in East Worthing and Shoreham, like many across the country, endured unrelenting and scorching heat. For many years we have focused on cold homes in winter, and now we need to turn our attention to hot homes in the summer. It was good to hear, in an earlier answer, some of what the Government have been doing, but what steps is the Department taking to help people to adapt homes and public buildings to our increasingly hot summers?
We are indeed living through extremes of climate change, and we felt that so intensely this summer. This should encourage us all to accelerate our efforts to mitigate, but also to expand opportunities to adapt. As my hon. Friend the Member for Inverclyde and Renfrewshire West (Martin McCluskey) has just said, the boiler upgrade scheme already provides for air-to-air heat pumps that can both heat and cool our homes at the same time. However, we want to go further, which is why the warm homes plan set out our intention to introduce passive cooling measures in our capital funded schemes, including solar shading, shutters, reflective window-cooling coatings and cooler building materials.
As hon. Members have said, we endured one of the hottest summers on record, with 10 days reaching 35°, which is double the previous record. We also saw deaths from extreme heat. When we think about insulating homes, we think about keeping ourselves warm, but home insulation is just as critical in protecting against extreme heat. So can the Minister tell the House a little more about the steps the Government are taking to ensure that the new homes we are building are designed to protect people against extreme heat?
My hon. Friend is a long-standing champion of retrofitting and of new build. We on this side of the House are proud of the future building standards, which require all new homes to be zero carbon-ready to ensure they are adapted to and can mitigate the impacts of climate change. The building regulations state that new homes must be designed to reduce overheating risk and prioritise passive measures such as limiting exposure to heat from the sun and openable windows to remove excess heat, but a full technical review is under way to ensure that those regulations remain effective and fit for the future.
Patrick Spencer (Central Suffolk and North Ipswich) (Con)Conservative
The proposers of the Easton-Letheringham solar farm application in my constituency have finally been forced to get an environmental impact assessment. Considering the vast size of the proposed development, which would cover over 200 acres of fertile farmland, it was a complete waste of time to think it would ever get through planning without one. Will the Minister consider requiring an environmental impact assessment for all solar developments on rural land?
I thank the hon. Gentleman for that question; I am a little unsure how it relates to this question grouping. We are looking at how to ensure we align the— [ Interruption. ] I am speaking from the Dispatch Box, but thank you. On environmental assessments of solar farms, we want to ensure that our policies are in line with Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs policies. We have worked very closely with DEFRA, and continue to do so, on the land use framework to make sure that we are delivering clean power while improving nature restoration. It was great over the recess to talk to solar providers who looked at biodiversity increase from solar farms.
Sarah Dyke (Glastonbury and Somerton) (LD)Liberal Democrat
British food security is in real jeopardy. Extreme weather is becoming more severe, more frequent and more unpredictable. The Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit warns that 2026 could be the worst UK harvest on record. What discussions has the Minister had with DEFRA colleagues on strengthening British farms’ resilience to extreme weather?
I thank the hon. Lady for her very important question. This is one of the reasons why, before this summer, we launched the climate and nature security taskforce. As I said, sadly it has become even more relevant after the summer and its impacts on farming and food security. We are working hand in glove with DEFRA to ensure that these matters are considered at the same time, and that cascading climate and nature impacts on food security are considered. That will be a core part of our climate and nature security taskforce.
Source: UK Parliament Hansard API. Debate ID: 5415299.