The Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government has released updated survey data on how resilient English homes are to extreme weather. Here are five things we learned.

Between 2019 and 2024, the proportion of occupied dwellings in England where households reported overheating increased from 7% to 12%, rising from an estimated 1.7 million to 3 million.

Of the 3 million homes that reported overheating in 2024, a higher share of owner-occupied dwellings were affected (12.1%) than both private (8.2%) and social rented dwellings (8.1%).

In the 2024 data, 3.1 million occupied dwellings in England were reported as being unable to keep warm in winter.

The share of affected households varies by tenure: 20.5% of households living in social housing reported being unable to keep warm, compared with 18.3% for private rented homes and 7% for owner-occupied dwellings.

So, while owner-occupied dwellings dominate the ‘overheating’ group, social rented dwellings are most common in the ‘unable to keep warm’ group.

About 395,000 homes experienced both getting uncomfortably hot and an inability to keep warm in the winter. Of this group, private rented dwellings (3%) and social rented dwellings (2.5%) were more likely to experience both problems than owner occupied dwellings (1.1%)

Of the 3 million dwellings reported as overheating in 2024, 2 million are constructed with cavity masonry walls, 667,000 have solid masonry walls and 309,000 dwellings have other less common wall types.

Overheating is more prevalent in dwellings with steel frame (18%), timber frame (15.8%) and cavity masonry walls (12.8%) compared with concrete frame (9.4%) and concrete boxwall (5.5%).

For those unable to keep warm, there is a different trend. People living in dwellings with concrete boxwall construction (22%) are more likely to report being unable to keep warm than those with cavity masonry (11.5%), timber frame (9%), and steel frame (4.3%) construction.

Of the 3 million dwellings reported as overheating in 2024, 2 million are constructed with cavity masonry walls, 667,000 have solid masonry walls and 309,000 dwellings have other less common wall types.

Overheating is more prevalent in dwellings with steel frame (18%), timber frame (15.8%) and cavity masonry walls (12.8%) compared with concrete frame (9.4%) and concrete boxwall (5.5%).

For those unable to keep warm, there is a different trend. People living in dwellings with concrete boxwall construction (22%) are more likely to report being unable to keep warm than those with cavity masonry (11.5%), timber frame (9%), and steel frame (4.3%) construction.

Out of the 3 million households who reported getting uncomfortably hot in 2024, the most common methods of keeping cool were opening the windows (89.7%), closing shutters/curtains/blinds (74.7%), or switching on a fan (58.7%).

Just 7.5% reported turning on AC. Of this group, owner occupiers (8.7%) were more likely to switch on an air conditioner to cool down than private renters (3.7%).

The way many people are heating and cooling their homes is not working in extreme weather. Too many people will face health impacts from over- or under-heating, and the unsuitability of many English homes to extreme cold means millions are living in fuel poverty.

In response, the UK government should continue its electrification mission at pace. Electrification can keep homes cool in summer as well as warm in winter, and by bringing down the cost of energy, even leakier, hard-to-heat homes can be heated more efficiently through electric heating technologies.

Electrification won't solve every problem overnight, particularly for homes structurally unsuited to extreme weather, but it remains one of the few interventions that can address both ends of the thermometer at once. As extreme weather becomes more common, getting this transition right is not just a decarbonisation imperative, it’s also a matter of public health.