Sadiq Khan rolls out heat plan for London inspired by sweltering desert city

The Mayor of London has said the capital is not equipped to deal with this heat, to absolutely no one’s surprise.

Londoners have been sweltering on the central line, baking in their tower block flats, and sheltering in any cafe they can find as a rare red weather warning for extreme heat is issued.

And it is not just a matter of feeling warm. Homes have been destroyed during flash flooding following heavy thunderstorms on Tuesday, and 300 people were left trapped on a stranded train as Transport for London buckles under the heat.

Sadiq Khan has said London can’t keep suffering under every heatwave as global warming is making sure 40C summers, like the infamous one seen in 2022, become ‘the new normal’.

And the answer lies with London’s first-ever heat plan, inspired by our friends across the pond in some of the US’s warmest cities.

The Mayor told Metro: ‘Phoenix, for example, is a city in the USA that’s one of the hottest cities in the world. One of things they do is when it comes their roofs, they paint them a certain color.

‘Los Angeles has issues with water shortages we are looking at too. They, and places like Paris and Milan, are decades ahead of us so we’re learning from them, from the design of our buildings to the types of trees we are planting.

‘As infrastructure currently stands, London is not equipped to deal with frequent and extreme heat waves.’

The London Fire Commissioner, Jonathan Smith, agreed. He has spoken to the Los Angeles Fire Department on how best to spot where wildfires are most likely to appear.

He told Metro: ‘They shared a lot of lessons on using AI and algorithms to predict where the fires will occur. I think there are real lessons from the USA, and Europe and Australia.’

Sir Sadiq unveiled the heat plan today, titled ‘Heat ready London’, which revealed more than 1,300 schools, 60 hospitals and 350 care homes are at risk of overheating.

To combat this, London is set to see buildings retrofitted with air conditioning and more access to green and blue spaces.

Those in poorer areas are set to be prioritised, as their access to parks and gardens are limited.

On Collingwood Estate in Sutton, south London, residents say they are ‘cooking’ and suffering heat exhaustion with temperatures reaching 30C by 4am, they told the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Sir Sadiq said: ‘It is not just an issue of the environment, but of social justice. In the 2022 heatwave, we saw 400 premature deaths, 4,000 going to A&E, extreme challenges to our public transport and big pressure of the fire service.’

But to the disappointment of commuters, a fully air-conditioned London Underground network is still a long way off.

When asked if we would ever see one, Sir Sadiq replied: ‘I hope so.’

He added: ‘When I became mayor, it was a dream to have air conditioned tubes, and I got 40% of them done.

‘But it’s very difficult to for some of our deeper trains to retrofit air conditioning, because they are so deep. So the most efficient way to do it is when we renew stock.’

Heat Ready London focuses on six key sectors: the built environment, business and economy, emergency preparedness, resilience and response, health and care, green space and nature and infrastructure.

Some 37 areas of focus are set out in the report for the plan – including expanding access to cooling spaces and public drinking water.

Other focus points include adapting the highest risk homes to protect the vulnerable, expanding access to blue spaces, strengthening health and care system resilience and improving the resilience of critical infrastructure such as travel.

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