As the UK experiences increasingly extreme summer temperatures, The National Federation of Roofing Contractors (NFRC) is calling for climate resilience to become a standard consideration in the design, refurbishment and maintenance of roofs.
The publication of NFRC’s latest report ‘Future (P)roof: Five Years On – The Importance of Climate-Resilient Roofs as the UK Swelters’ revisits research originally commissioned by the NFRC Charitable Trust and undertaken by the University of Southampton in 2021.
The original Future (P)roof research examined how the roof space could help the built environment adapt to a changing climate, identifying overheating and flooding as two of the greatest climate-related risks facing UK buildings.
Five years on, these findings are increasingly relevant. The extreme temperatures experienced across the UK during 2026 provide a timely reminder that buildings designed or refurbished today will need to perform in a very different climate over their service life.
Climate adaptation, especially of existing building stock, must sit alongside efforts to reduce carbon emissions. Improving energy efficiency remains essential, but a building can be highly energy efficient and still be vulnerable to overheating, extreme rainfall, and other future climate risks.
Gary Walpole, NFRC Technical Safety, Health, and Environment Officer, and the author of the report, said: “The climate that roofs need to perform in is changing. A roof installed or significantly refurbished today could still be in place in the 2050s, so relying solely on historical weather conditions when designing for its service life is no longer enough.
“Climate resilience does not mean that every building needs an expensive or innovative roofing system. Good design, effective drainage, appropriate ventilation, inspection and maintenance remain fundamental. But we need to take a longer-term view of how roofs will perform and make better use of the opportunities that the roof space provides.”