In the brutal heatwave of July 2022, when the UK experienced temperatures of 40 degrees for the first time, more than 1,000 people died across England and Wales. In our most recent heatwave in mid-June 2025, researchers predicted more than 500 excess deaths in a single day. As climate change continues and such heatwaves become more frequent, death tolls will rise. But will they rise equally across society – or will some individuals and communities suffer more than others?

We convened a group of 25 experts in climate and heatwave resilience, vulnerability and inequality to examine how wealth inequality in the UK affects our ability to respond to extreme heat events, and in particular:

• How wealth inequality increases the vulnerability of key groups in society to heatwaves
• How wealth inequality undermines the feasibility and effectiveness of some of the main heatwave adaptation measures
• What we can do to reduce the negative impacts of wealth inequality on our ability to respond to extreme heat, both through targeted interventions and through broader measures to reduce wealth inequality and its impacts on our society and economy

The workshop followed a similar event on wealth inequality and societal collapse, Inequality Knocks, hosted by King’s College London and the Fairness Foundation in November 2024.

Online (skip to a section below)

Britain is a wealthy country, but its wealth is increasingly concentrated in few hands. While wealth inequality has remained fairly stable in relative terms over recent decades (with the richest 10% owning about 60% of the UK’s wealth), substantial rises in the value of assets between 2011 and 2019 increased the absolute wealth gap between the richest and poorest households by 50%, to a level that is second only to the USA among OECD countries. As a result, wealth – or its absence – has a bigger impact on people’s lives than ever before, from their housing to their health. Wealth inequality is distinct from both income inequality and poverty, but all three are related, which complicates efforts to tease out their downstream impacts.

Wealth inequality fuels inequalities in public health, with those living in the most deprived areas living 7-9 years less than those in the least deprived areas. People in less wealthy communities also cope with more long-term illnesses compared to wealthier individuals, who can afford better quality housing, food, and lifestyles. Higher levels of wealth inequality are associated with greater anxiety, stress and psychological distress due to increased negative social comparisons, and the cognitive burden of economic insecurity.

Large wealth gaps are negatively correlated with the quality of social interactions. As individuals become more wary of those from different economic backgrounds, this breakdown in trust leads to reduced civic participation alongside people from different backgrounds. Social networks weaken and become more segregated along economic lines. Less wealthy households are particularly affected, finding it harder to build connections and more likely to experience social isolation.

Higher levels of wealth inequality are associated with higher levels of crime, particularly property and violent crimes. This relationship has been explained with reference to the effects of economic deprivation, whereby crime may be the only way left to access basic resources. Resentment brought on by higher levels of perceived inequality can erode social cohesion and weaken adherence to social norms.

Wealth inequality undermines access to good quality, affordable housing. Those who do not come from wealthy families are effectively locked out of the housing market because they cannot rely on parental wealth to help them afford the rising cost of housing. Private and social renters pay a far larger portion of their monthly income on rent and often suffer worse health outcomes due to poor quality housing.

With the increase in the value of absolute wealth and stagnating wages, it becomes harder for those from less wealthy backgrounds to become socially mobile and to move up into a higher wealth decile. Wealth affords several educational, health, employment, and other benefits that cannot be realised by the less wealthy, who are then less able to move up the socio-economic ladder.

Wealth inequality exacerbates the impact of extreme heat on vulnerable groups

At the individual or household level, people with less wealth are less likely to benefit from extreme heat risk mitigation and adaptation strategies than their wealthier counterparts, despite being more likely to be affected. For example, they are less likely to be able to afford cooling measures such as installing air-conditioning or shutters, as well as lower-cost approaches such as fans or repainting external walls white.

The less wealthy are more likely to work in jobs that mean that they are more exposed to extreme heat, working in healthcare, hospitality/kitchens, construction, and other gig-economy jobs. In contrast, people who can work remotely or from home are more able to stay cool during periods of extreme heat because they are less directly exposed.

The less wealthy are more likely to live in over-crowded, poor-quality housing than their wealthier counterparts. With poorer households living in insecure, unsafe housing, their risk of mental and physical health issues is greater, making them more vulnerable to the impacts of extreme heat.

Should they need support to address these health issues, poorer households are less able to access timely, quality healthcare, leading to much worse health and mortality outcomes. The less wealthy are more reliant on accessing public services, such as healthcare and public transport, but due to a lack of government investment in extreme mitigation and adaptation in these sectors, they are more impacted by the effects of extreme heat on these services.

Inequality undermines civic participation: those with less wealth are less likely to engage and have their interests represented in public policy decisions. Their experiences and insights are less likely to be incorporated in community and national risk mitigation and preparedness strategies.

There is a feedback loop in operation, since climate breakdown can reinforce poverty and wealth inequality. Increases in temperature over time have a larger effect on poorer households than wealthier households and can increase wealth inequality. Poorer households are less able to absorb price shocks from extreme heat on energy, water, and food prices for example, which can increase due to the effects of extreme heat on supplies of basic goods.

Wealth inequality exacerbates the risks of extreme heat at a societal level

More broadly, wealth inequality undermines our society, economy and democracy, undermining economic growth and people’s access to opportunity, and reducing the strength of our democracy. These impacts interact and reinforce each other. Lobbying by wealthy elites can undermine progress on net zero as well as on tackling the wealth inequality that exacerbates its impacts. The under-taxation of wealth, combined with sluggish economic growth, reduces the available funding for public services that indirectly mitigate against the impacts of extreme heat, as well as for direct mitigation strategies such as retrofitting houses or investing in heat-resilient public infrastructure.

And finally, wealth inequality damages social cohesion and resilience to extreme heat and other climate risks. Wealth inequality can lead to heightened corruption and poorer decision-making that benefits the elite rather than the public good. This makes it harder for institutions to effectively adapt to changing circumstances, while reducing public faith in politicians and increasing public discontent. Taken together, these dynamics increase the risks of societal unrest and, eventually, societal collapse, as we explored in the previous workshop.

To explore the evidence base in more detail, please see the Wealth Gap Risk Register.