In 2023, a National Audit Office (NAO) report on our resilience to extreme weather did not pull any punches about the adequacy of government overheating policy. “There is no policy to address overheating in existing homes and buildings”, it concluded, with the characteristic blend of force, asperity, and evidence the NAO is known for.

Since 2023, CIH has been making the case for this to change. We have partnered with the UK Collaborative Centre for Housing Evidence (CaCHE) to publish a discussion paper on what policy is required to mitigate overheating in homes, and contributed to research showing that 80 per cent of our homes overheated in the scorching summer of 2022.

For the first time, the CIH’s UK Housing Review also included a standalone chapter on climate resilience in 2025, setting out the evidence on the problem and how we should approach it.