Heatwaves can be a unifying call to fight climate change but they are only widening UK inequality

I spent the June heatwave hiding out in my 1930s home in just a pair of shorts. Surviving that harrowing mental image may be more gruelling than enduring the sweltering temperatures.

I did what you’re told to do: I stayed out of the sun in the middle of the day, went running at the crack of dawn, I kept the blinds and windows closed in the day and purged the hot air in the evening.

Make no mistake: I was still roasting.

But I’m privileged enough to have options: I guzzled water. There was a fan I could have fetched from the loft. I could have gone out and bought an air conditioning unit – Toolstation reported sales were up 333% as Britain melted. 

There are modifications I can make to my home when time (and money) allows: put shutters on the windows, improve the insulation, get a heat pump that allows cooling.

It’s a reality we’ll all face: the Climate Change Committee recently warned that around 90% of existing UK homes will overheat during severe summer heatwaves by 2050.

The challenge of facing ever more extreme, record-breaking temperatures should be one that unites us all as we face down the climate crisis.

But the heat that has hit Britain this summer is far from a leveller. In fact, it is widening existing inequalities.

It wasn’t I that was suffering the most. It was families in overcrowded top-floor temporary accommodation flats. It was the elderly, the very young and others who are more vulnerable when temperatures rise. 

It was, of course, Big Issue vendors and other rough sleepers who were out facing the elements without shelter or access to water.

That’s why this week’s Big Issue is putting the focus on heat.

We head back to the legendary 1976 heatwave when the UK cooked for weeks at temperatures that 2026 would consider mildly toasty.

We go to the streets to find out how rough sleepers dealt with this summer’s heatwaves. We found a postcode lottery of support. The dangers are something Big Issue has been addressing directly, giving our vendors across the country our Summer Support Kits.

But there are solutions too. They must bring hope and filter down to the people on the margins.

Read more:

• Homeless people needed protecting from hot weather more than ever before in 2025
• Fancy spending a heatwave in a former office block? That’s the reality for thousands of families
• Revealed: Homeless people offered chairs not beds by councils in extreme weather

We take a look at Europe’s biggest climate tech hub, which is coming up with big ideas to keep cool and slash carbon emissions with a little help from Big Issue Invest.

We spend some time at Energy House 2.0, where the new homes of today and tomorrow are tested to see if they can stand the heat.

And speaking of knowing how to handle the heat, there’s also an interview with Angela Rayner as she looks likely to be stepping back into the pressure cooker of frontline politics.

Perhaps the realities of how Britain really copes in the heat will leave you feeling hot under the collar. Perhaps they’ll inspire you to take action on the climate crisis. Maybe this magazine will keep you cool (it’s a handy fan!).

But the takeaway is simple: action on climate change needs to be imminent. No one can be left behind, whether in the UK or other parts of the world where the effects are already being felt.

As for the distressing mental image of how I survived the heatwave, that’s just something you’ll have to live with.

Liam Geraghty is Big Issue Deputy Editor 

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more. 

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