British homeowners are being ordered by councils to tear out air conditioning units from their properties even as the country endures one of its most extreme heatwaves on record, with temperatures breaching 40C and a rare red weather warning in place across large parts of England.
The extraordinary situation has emerged as a direct consequence of net zero planning policies that classify air conditioning units as environmentally harmful, with some local authorities refusing permission for their installation and ordering the removal of units already fitted. Planning officers have cited concerns that the units produce too much carbon dioxide and contribute to warming of the local microclimate — even as the people inside those homes swelter in potentially life-threatening heat.
The rules vary significantly between councils, with some taking a far stricter approach than others. London has been among the most aggressive in discouraging air conditioning, with Mayor Sadiq Khan’s 2021 plan for the capital describing its use as “not desirable” and instructing that new developments should be designed to “avoid the need” for units wherever possible. Camden council’s local plan goes further still, explicitly stating that it will “discourage the use of air conditioning” on the grounds that it increases energy demand and makes the local microclimate hotter.
National building regulations, known as Part O, compound the problem by requiring that new homes demonstrate all “passive” cooling methods — such as opening windows and adding shading — have been exhausted before any mechanical cooling system can be considered. Critics say these rules have created a situation in which homeowners face a bureaucratic obstacle course simply to stay cool in their own homes.
Shadow energy secretary Claire Coutinho has described the situation as the result of a “warped energy ideology,” writing recently that Britain has become “one of the only major economies on Earth which has decided that the solution to hot days is to ‘sweat it out’.” She added: “Why would we limit access to a technology that is proven to save lives, boost productivity and make people more comfortable? Energy policy should serve the needs of the British public, not the other way around.”
Sam Dumitriu, head of policy at Britain Remade, said the regulations had produced absurd outcomes at precisely the wrong moment. “Britain is getting hotter, yet new builds are not being built with new, higher temperatures in mind,” he said. “For costs and, crucially, environmental reasons, they heavily discourage the use of mechanical ventilation or air conditioning.”
The Climate Change Committee has warned that heat is “the deadliest single climate-related health threat in the UK” and called on the government to invest in active cooling for care homes, schools and hospitals. By 2050, it warns, some 92 per cent of homes could overheat, with heatwave temperatures regularly exceeding 40C and potentially causing 10,000 additional heat-related deaths each year.
Between three and 19 per cent of UK homes currently have air conditioning, compared with 25 per cent in France, more than 40 per cent in Spain and nine in ten homes in the United States. Around 90 per cent of NHS buildings in England are vulnerable to overheating, while most schools have no mechanical cooling at all — a fact that has contributed to more than a thousand school closures this week alone.
A government spokesman said planning regulations were under review and that homeowners were encouraged to install air conditioning where they wished to do so. But for those who have already been ordered to remove units they installed at their own expense, that reassurance will ring hollow.
