Local authority leaders have called on the Government to ‘turbo charge’ efforts to reduce carbon emissions as the latest figures reveal that there were tens of thousands of excess deaths over summer.
The call comes in response to the latest ONS figures that show there were 56,303 excess deaths in England and Wales during the five heat-periods between June and August this year.
Cllr David Fothergill, chairman of the Local Government Association’s (LGA) Community Wellbeing Board, warned that rising temperatures place people who are older or have a health condition at ‘greater risk’.
He also urged the Government to help councils prepare for further periods of heat.
‘The Met Office has predicted that hotter and drier summers could be likely to become more common as heat records are being broken more frequently, with all the challenges this brings to councils and the communities who we support,’ Cllr Fothergill said.
‘We must start to adapt to ensure our residents, our homes and buildings, and our local infrastructure can remain as resilient as possible to the threat of extreme weather. As well as this, the Government must work with councils and others to turbo charge efforts to bring down carbon emissions and achieve our net zero targets, limiting further temperature increases in the future.’
