One in seven people across the UK are considering moving to a cooler part of the country due to rising temperatures, new Barclays Property Insights research shows.
This comes as Mayor Sadiq Khan announces London’s first ever heat plan, Heat Ready London, set to protect the capital city as it reaches record breaking high temperatures across the summer months.
The new heat plan has been introduced in response to an “urgent need for action,” as temperatures reached over 40 degrees in 2022 for the first time in British history, according to London Gov.
Some components of the Heat Ready London plan include putting an emphasis on homes which are most at risk during the extreme heat, with plans to retrofit their buildings, make cooling spaces more accessible, and improve infrastructure.
Barclays Property Insights survey found that 13% of respondents considered moving somewhere cooler. When looking at the percentage for young adults alone, this figure rises to 25% for millennials, and 21% for gen Z.
Investigations by The London Assembly ask the question of whether London homes are truly equipped to handle heatwaves of such an extreme nature, citing that many were designed for the purpose of staying warm during the winter periods.
Three in 10 survey respondents were concerned about how the rising heat would impact their energy bills, due to the amount of electricity needed in order to cool their homes.
Despite this concern, across the UK, residents have responded to the hotter weather with different methods, reporting using a variety as a means of cooling their homes, including portable fans, blackout blinds and both portable and fixed AC.
Jatin Patel, head of Mortgages, Savings and Insurance at Barclays said: “For homeowners, it’s no longer just a question of comfort, but also cost-management as they balance staying cool with the impact on their energy bills.”
A case study provided by Barclays shows 30-year old homeowner Hannah James, who has been affected by the rising temperature. James, from Hertfordshire, has spent over £5,500 on items such as air conditioning and blackout blinds, in attempts to make her Victorian home more manageable in the extreme heat.
“I work from home, so trying to concentrate in that kind of heat was exhausting, and sleeping at night was just as tough,” James said.
As London and the rest of the UK continue to prepare for hotter summers to come, the aims of Heat Ready London remain at the forefront of efforts to combat the extreme heat for vulnerable residents.
The findings of Barclays suggest that the hotter weather is already having an influence on how people are cooling their homes, as well as where they choose to live.
Source: Barclays Property Insights survey of 2000 adults, in June 2026. Survey conducted by Opinium.
Featured image credit: Unsplash
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