June heatwave wiped more than £1bn from UK economy
"Extreme heat is widening existing inequalities in the labour force."
The UK's June 2026 heatwave cost the economy an estimated £1.15 billion in lost productivity, with workers collectively losing around 24 million hours of labour as extreme temperatures disrupted working patterns across the country.
This is according to new research from the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science and the Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC), published today (July 23).
