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Your House Survived This Summer. Will It Survive the Next Heatwave Better?

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  Your House Survived This Summer. Will It Survive the Next Heatwave Better? “The worst possible time to start preparing your house for a heatwave is when the bedroom is already 30°C.” October brings a familiar list of household jobs: check the heating, clear the gutters and find the warmer bedding. Preparing for next summer rarely makes the list. Yet this is an excellent time to ask what the last spell of hot weather taught us. Which room became unbearable? Which window caught the afternoon sun? Did opening everything actually help? Why was the bedroom still hot long after the garden had cooled? Once cooler weather arrives, it is tempting to forget those uncomfortable nights. But the next heatwave may arrive before we have chosen an awning, booked an installer or planted a tree. Autumn gives us time to turn a summer problem into a practical improvement. Europe’s Hot Summers Give Us a Reason to Prepare A rapid analysis published in September 2025 by researchers at Imperial College ...
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What Should Be in a Resilient Home Cupboard?

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  What Should Be in a Resilient Home Cupboard? Going Green Blog Series | October 2026 | Practical Living, Household Resilience and Sustainability | I got a lot of help on this one. Appendix at the bottom of the article. “Resilience can begin with one ordinary kitchen cupboard.” Introduction: You Don't Need a Bunker to Be Prepared When people hear the words emergency preparedness, they sometimes imagine underground shelters, enormous stockpiles of food, complicated survival equipment and preparations for events that may never happen. But sensible household resilience is something altogether different. It is about being able to cope comfortably and safely when ordinary services stop working for a while. Imagine waking up one morning to discover that the electricity has failed. Your heating isn't working, the Wi-Fi is down, and the mobile phone network is becoming unreliable. The shops are open, but their payment terminals aren't working. Or perhaps a burst water main has left...
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Half a Million Trees — An Announcement Worth Celebrating

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  Half a Million Trees — An Announcement Worth Celebrating At the end of September 2026, the Government announced an ambitious programme to plant up to 500,000 new trees across England. The £53 million Community Trees Fund will support planting between April 2027 and March 2030, with trees appearing in streets, parks, rural landscapes and places where people live and work. It forms part of a wider £79 million package to help communities restore nature and adapt to climate change. GOV.UK +1 That sounds like excellent news, and in many ways it is. We need more trees. They provide shade, absorb carbon dioxide as they grow, support wildlife, intercept rainfall and make our towns and villages more pleasant places to live. But whenever I hear announcements about planting thousands, or even millions, of trees, one question immediately comes to mind: How many of those trees will still be alive in 10, 20 or 50 years? Planting a tree is relatively straightforward. Keeping it alive through dr...
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