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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Julia Kollewe and Tom Calverley

‘A lot of challenges’: can housing industry build homes habitable in high temperatures?

One of five 'passive houses' built in London Fields, east London. Passive houses are airtight and highly insulated, and designed to ensure a constant temperature as air circulates.
One of five 'passive houses' built in London Fields, east London. Passive houses are airtight and highly insulated, and designed to ensure a constant temperature as air circulates. Photograph: Alex Sarginson/Techtonics

As anyone sweltering in the current UK heatwave can attest, the country’s housing stock is woefully unsuited to heat.

Much of it is antiquated, dating from a time when the priorities were protecting from the cold and rain. Yet most new-build properties are similarly unready for experts’ predictions that, by the middle of the century, there will be temperatures on the level of summer 2018’s highs every other year.

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