Agenda item

a)            Motion: Beat the Heat—Preparing for an Overheating Climate

 

Proposer: Cllr Danny Lee
Seconder: Cllr Kelsie Learney

 

Council notes that:

Climate change is making extreme heat more frequent and intense, increasing risks to health, housing, workplaces, infrastructure and essential services. It is estimated that the May and June heatwaves in England and Wales this year led to 2750 excess deaths.[6]

 

1. Those most at risk include older people, young children, people with disabilities or existing illnesses, rough sleepers and residents of poorly ventilated or overheating homes. Income also affects people’s ability to adapt their homes or afford additional heating or cooling, making thermal resilience an important equality issue.

 

2. The Climate Change Committee’s A Well-Adapted UK concludes that stronger adaptation is required across homes, public services and infrastructure as climate risks increase.[5]

 

3.    From 30 Nov 2026, Phase 2 of Awaab’s Law will extend social landlords’ duties to significant excess heat and cold hazards.[8]

 

4.    WCC already has relevant climate, housing, emergency-planning, asset-management and resilience arrangements and has responded to issues of overheating within its Council housing estate. Ongoing Council work provides an opportunity to strengthen Beat the Heat guidance and support to Council and communities.

 

Council believes that:

1.    Protecting residents from extreme temperatures is a shared public-health, housing and climate-resilience responsibility. The Council’s response should be evidence-led, proportionate and targeted at greatest risk, embedded within existing arrangements and avoiding unnecessary duplication or unfunded new workstreams.

 

2. Climate adaptation and emissions reduction must be pursued together. Protecting people from extreme heat should complement, rather than conflict with, decarbonisation.

 

3.    Wider guidance sets out practical measures for keeping people and buildings cooler [1–3] which can be highlighted in the Council’s forthcoming Housing Strategy update; however, the Housing Revenue Account is ring-fenced and financially constrained. Investment should therefore be targeted by statutory duty, assessed risk and household need, avoiding unfunded blanket programmes that could undermine essential housing services.

 

 

Council resolves to:

1.    Ask Cabinet to report how extreme heat is being addressed in the Council’s adaptation and resilience work, including implications for the transition to a new Unitary authority, using existing governance arrangements.

 

2.    Invite Cabinet to ensure that overheating and resilience to extreme heat are considered through the preparation of the new Local Plan, informed by the evidence base, the new Gateway process, public consultation, national planning policy and the relationship with Building Regulations.

 

3. Invite Cabinet to set out the Council’s developing approach to assessing and managing excess heat and cold in council housing, having regard to its statutory responsibilities under Awaab’s Law, and resources available within the Housing Revenue Account.

 

4.    Continue, through existing communications and partnerships, to promote appropriate practical advice before and during periods of extreme heat.

 

5.    Request the Health and Environment Policy Committee to consider the establishment of a time-limited working group to identify practical measures the Council can undertake to reduce the impact of extreme heat on our residents in the short term and in the context of local government reorganisation.

 

6. Ask the Leader and cabinet to advocate for action on overheating locally and nationally including:

·         heat adaptation to be integrated into public-estate decarbonisation;

·         enforceable sector-specific maximum-temperature standards or action thresholds for schools and workplaces;

·         stronger building and retrofit standards addressing overheating.

 

References

1. UK Health Security Agency, Beat the Heat: Staying Safe in Hot Weather.
2. NHS, Heatwave: How to Cope in Hot Weather.
3. Energy Saving Trust, How to Keep Your Home Cool in Hot Weather.
4. Health and Safety Executive, Temperature in the Workplace: What the Law Says and Heat Stress.
5. Climate Change Committee, A Well-Adapted UK: The Fourth Independent Assessment of UK Climate Risk, 20 May 2026.
6. Met Office, More than 2,700 excess deaths estimated in England and Wales during May and June heatwaves, 13 July 2026.
7. Office for National Statistics, Climate-related mortality, England and Wales: 1988 to 2022.
8. Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, Awaab’s Law Phase 2: Guidance for social housing landlords, 13 July 2026 (effective 30 November 2026).

9.    Urban Heat Index - Heat mapping service – https://www.linkedin.com/company/urban-heat-index/

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b)           Motion - Natural Capital as Strategic Infrastructure

 

Proposer: Cllr Danny Lee

Seconder: Cllr Liam Bailey-Morgan

 

Environmental degradation is not a single, isolated risk. It is a systemic process that intensifies multiple, interconnected challenges — from flooding and water insecurity to poor health, food insecurity and economic disruption. To futureproof our economy and provide resilience against the increasing impacts of climate change, it is important natural capital is recognised as critical infrastructure and integrated more effectively into our economy. 

 

Council notes that:

1. The emerging Hampshire and Solent Combined County Authority will shape economic growth, housing, transport, infrastructure investment and strategic planning through its Local Growth Plan and future Spatial Development Strategy.

 

2. The Institute of Sustainability and Environmental Professionals’ June 2026 paper, Redefining Nature, argues that natural capital should be recognised as critical infrastructure essential to society, the economy, public safety and resilience.

 

3. Rivers, aquifers, soils, wetlands, woodlands, coastlines, biodiversity and ecological networks underpin water security, food production, flood resilience, air quality, public health, climate adaptation and economic prosperity.

 

4. The paper estimates that UK ecosystem services are worth approximately £1.8 trillion and warns that environmental degradation could impose substantial future economic costs.

 

5. The Dasgupta Review concluded that economies, livelihoods and wellbeing depend upon nature and that economic prosperity is embedded within nature, not separate from it.

 

6. Devolution and local government reorganisation do not, by themselves, ensure that natural capital, climate resilience and nature recovery will be fully integrated into future growth and infrastructure decisions.

 

 

 

Council believes that:

1. Nature is not simply a constraint on growth but is essential infrastructure upon which sustainable growth depends.

 

2. Hampshire and the Solent’s natural assets should be recognised, protected and managed as strategic infrastructure.

 

3. Failure to account for natural capital risks increasing future costs, weakening resilience and undermining sustainable development.

 

4. The emerging Combined County Authority has an opportunity to demonstrate national leadership by embedding natural capital and nature recovery into its plans and investment decisions from the outset.

 

Council resolves to:

1. Recognise the principle that natural capital should be treated as strategic critical infrastructure in policies, plans and investment decisions affecting Winchester district and the wider Hampshire and Solent area.

 

2. Ask the Leader and relevant Cabinet Members to advocate for natural capital, climate resilience and nature recovery to be embedded within:

a. the Local Growth Plan;
b. the future Spatial Development Strategy; and
c. strategic infrastructure, investment and monitoring frameworks.

 

3. Ask the emerging Combined County Authority to consider developing a Hampshire and Solent natural capital framework.

 

4. Seek alignment between the Local Growth Plan, Spatial Development Strategy, local plans, Local Nature Recovery Strategies, protected-landscape management plans and climate adaptation strategies.

 

5. Ensure that Winchester’s Local Plan evidence base appropriately addresses natural capital, water resilience, nature recovery and climate adaptation.

 

6. Ask the Leader to write to the Chair of the emerging Combined County Authority Board requesting consideration of the following question:

 

How can natural capital be recognised and integrated as strategic infrastructure within the Local Growth Plan, Spatial Development Strategy and investment framework to support resilient and sustainable economic growth?

 

7. Request a proportionate update through existing reporting arrangements on the response and subsequent progress.

 

 

Refs:

1.    New guide urges businesses to consider the decline of the natural environment as a material financial risk

2.    Natural capital must be recognised as critical national infrastructure to futureproof the economy - Water Magazine

3.    Future-proofing our Economy | Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust

4.    Why Treating Nature As Critical Infrastructure Would Help Grow The Economy | Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE)

5.    Nature as infrastructure: A three-point plan for growth and delivery

6.    Nature as Critical Infrastructure: Implications for Resilience Planning from the UK’s National Security Assessment | BCI