Agenda item

Report of the Director of Public Health.

The Board receive a report of the Director of Public Health in respect of the links between overheating-related climate risks and how they interact with various elements of health.

Officers advised the Board that overheating had become one of the most critical impacts and it had affected systems across the UK with an estimated cost implication of £6.8 billion each year. Overheating presented both direct and indirect impacts to health contributing to worsening pre-existing conditions, resulting in increased heat related hospitalizations and increased heat related mortality. Officers sought further endorsement to collaborate with partners as well as working within the Community to encourage resilience behaviours including more heat planning exercises.

The Deputy Chair found the report helpful and wanted to know if the report could be shared with other Boards and Committees since the report had been produced for the Health and Wellbeing Board only. She was interested to see what methods of mitigation could be explored, water fountains and shady spaces being mentioned and believed that others within the City Corporation would be interested in the work surrounding this report. A Member agreed that the Planning and Transportation Committee would be interested in this report.

A Member agreed and advised officers that it was important to be prepared for all forms of weather, not just extreme heat, and to ensure methods of mitigation in public spaces across the City were available and encouraged the relevant departments across the City Corporation to be aware of how they could support this. Officers confirmed that they do integrate with other departments as part of the City Corporations’ Climate Action Strategy but agreed that more collaboration could be done.

A Member raised a question in relation to protected historical buildings and what was being done to retrofit these buildings to ensure that structurally they were in line with the Climate Action Strategy. Officers confirmed that a ‘historic buildings toolkit’ was available to them and this contained further details on how to retrofit buildings to be more carbon efficient and resilient. Solar panels had recently been introduced at Merchant Taylor’s Hall (a grade one listed building) but coincidentally many historic buildings within the remit of the City Corporation were located at “cooler” sites.

Members asked officers to be mindful of the effects of overheating on residential properties and to those who work within the hospitality sector who may feel the effects of overheating whilst working (e.g. kitchen staff). They encouraged officers to consider forward planning and resilience before resulting to mitigation.

RESOLVED, that – Members endorse the continued collaboration between officers working in Public Health and Climate Action, and others on the issues outlined in the report.