The Environmental Audit Committee has said the government should put an end to the public funding of modular homes as they are not resilient to heatwaves
In its latest report ‘Heatwaves: adapting to climate change’ the environmental committee claims that modular homes are vulnerable to heatwaves. The committee believes that public money is being used to support the construction of them.
According to a study on modular construction in the UK by Pinsent Masons, there are currently around 15,000 modular homes built in the UK each year.
The report stated that at current temperatures, one in five homes in the UK overheats. It suggests that certain types of home – single aspect flats, houses built in the 1960s and 1970s – are at significant risk of overheating.
The committee states that there is currently no building regulation to prevent overheating in buildings, and tests to identify overheating are weak and ineffective.
However, the committee heard uncertainty from Government Ministers about whether the building regulations should be used to protect human health.
The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers believes that building regulations should be changed to protect health and it has created a series of tests to prevent buildings overheating at design stage.
Mary Creagh MP, chair of the Environmental Audit Committee said: “The government needs to do more to warn the public of the health risks of heatwaves – particularly when they fall outside of the summer period – and should appoint a minister to lead work across government.
“The government’s new adaptation plan promises no effective action to prevent overheating in buildings.
“It must change building regulations and planning policies to ensure homes and transport networks are able to deal with extreme heat, and that local authorities and cities have green spaces and heat-resilient infrastructure.”
