Cool spaces: what faith communities can offer in extreme heat

We've grown used to faith communities opening their doors as warm spaces through cold winters. The changing climate now brings the opposite challenge. Heatwaves are becoming more frequent, more intense and more dangerous — and extreme heat is a quiet killer. Just as they've offered warmth, faith communities are well placed to offer something increasingly needed: a cool space, and care for those most at risk, when the temperature soars.

Heat is a hidden killer

It's easy to think of a heatwave as an inconvenience. In fact, extreme heat causes real and rising harm. In England there were around 1,311 heat-associated deaths in 2024, and roughly 1,504 in 2025 — the warmest UK summer on record. The people who die are overwhelmingly the elderly, the unwell and the isolated, often alone at home and unseen. Heat rarely makes dramatic headlines the way a storm does, which is part of the danger.

There's an encouraging side, though: in 2025 the observed deaths were markedly lower than models predicted — a sign that the actions communities and services take, from checking on people to offering cool refuge, genuinely save lives. The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), with the Met Office, runs a Heat-Health Alert system (its red alerts signal a risk to life for even healthy people) as part of its Adverse Weather and Health Plan. (Figures relate to England and are published each year — check the current position.)

Why faith buildings make natural cool refuges

Faith communities bring exactly what's needed. Many places of worship are old, thick-walled stone or brick buildings that stay naturally cool, with large, shaded, high-ceilinged spaces. They're central and accessible, they're trusted, and they're already places people gather. In short, they're the summer equivalent of the warm space — somewhere to escape the heat of the day.

What a cool space can offer

The core offer is simple but valuable:

• A cool, shaded place to rest during the hottest hours — especially for people in hot flats with no garden or outdoor space.
• Water and hydration, and somewhere to sit quietly.
• Company for the isolated — heat and loneliness compound one another.
• Information and signposting on staying safe, and help for those who need it.

And beyond the building itself, the most life-saving act can be the simplest: checking on vulnerable and isolated members when an alert is issued. A phone call or a knock at the door, to make sure someone is drinking water and keeping cool, can prevent a tragedy.

Doing it well

A few things make a cool space genuinely effective and safe:

• Watch the Heat-Health Alerts and be ready to open when heat is forecast, rather than reacting late.
• Make sure it's actually cool — know your building's coolest spots, use shade and ventilation, and have plenty of water.
• Reach the most at-risk, don't just wait for people to arrive — the people in most danger are often those least able to come to you.
• Keep it safe — safeguarding, accessibility, water and food hygiene, and enough awareness to spot the signs of heat exhaustion or heatstroke and act.
• Work with local partners — your council, the NHS and the UKHSA framework — and coordinate with other providers, connecting to the wider neighbourhood health picture.
• Protect your volunteers too — they feel the heat as well.

Part of a bigger resilience picture

Cool spaces are one piece of a larger reality: extreme weather of all kinds — heat, cold and flooding — is becoming more common, and faith communities are increasingly anchors of local resilience (a theme in preparing for the next pandemic and in caring for the vulnerable more widely). It also sits alongside doing your part to reduce the emissions driving the change, which we cover in the carbon-zero checklist. Meeting the symptoms and the causes belong together.

The bottom line

A cool building, a jug of water, a shaded seat and a friendly check-in sound modest — but in a severe heatwave they can be the difference between life and death for the most vulnerable in your community. As the climate warms, offering cool refuge is fast becoming as natural an expression of faithful welcome as the winter warm space. It's practical, it's needed, and faith communities are ideally placed to provide it.

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This article is general information, not advice. Running a cool space involves safeguarding, health-and-safety and accessibility responsibilities. Follow current UKHSA and NHS heat guidance, and for help with the governance side, get in touch.

Sources verified (June 2026):

• UKHSA / GOV.UK — Heat mortality monitoring report, England: 2025 (≈1,504 heat-associated deaths; warmest UK summer on record) — https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/heat-mortality-monitoring-report-england-2025/heat-mortality-monitoring-report-england-2025
• UKHSA / GOV.UK — Heat mortality monitoring report, England: 2024 (≈1,311 heat-associated deaths) — https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/heat-mortality-monitoring-report-england-2024/heat-mortality-monitoring-report-england-2024
• UKHSA — Weather health alerts (Heat-Health Alert system and Adverse Weather and Health Plan) — https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ukhsa-issues-red-heat-health-alerts-across-england