Health secretary Yvette Cooper has instructed NHS England to begin drawing up dedicated summer heat plans, treating extreme temperatures with the same seriousness as winter pressures, as prime minister Andy Burnham chaired an emergency Cobra committee meeting on 6 August 2026 to address a surge in wildfires and prolonged dry, hot weather across the country. Burnham urged retailers to voluntarily withdraw disposable barbecues from sale, confirmed an extension of the existing retail restriction framework, and said a temporary summer ban on the products could follow. Officials also disclosed that England and Wales have already matched their entire 2025 total of wildfires this year, with 1,017 recorded so far.
What did Yvette Cooper say about NHS heatwave planning?
Cooper said the health service must now prepare for summer heat crises in the structured way it has long prepared for winter surges, arguing that repeated and intensifying heatwaves are becoming an entrenched feature of British summers. Writing in the Mirror, she pointed to the near-3,000 excess deaths recorded during the May and June heat episodes as evidence that the health consequences of hot weather can no longer be treated as exceptional.
During the heatwaves in May and June, we saw more than 2,800 lives lost because of the extreme heat, and this year is on track to see the highest ever number of heat-related deaths. My thoughts go out to every family who has lost loved ones …
Our NHS is used to gearing up for these kinds of pressures in winter. But we are going to need the same level of preparation in future summers. I have told the NHS to start drawing up summer plans now in the way they have traditionally done for winter.
Especially as all the same people who are most at risk when it is very cold are at risk in the extreme heat: older people, the youngest children, and people with existing conditions …
We know Britain will face heatwaves like this with increasing frequency and increasing intensity. So we have to take the health consequences much more seriously, so that everyone is ready when they come.
Cooper's intervention builds on an earlier announcement covered in our report on the health secretary's call for the NHS to treat heat pressures as an annual planning priority, which followed a rise in heat-related accident and emergency visits and hospital disruption earlier in the summer. It also follows warnings detailed in our coverage of UK Health Security Agency estimates putting the country on track for record heat-related deaths, after the May and June heatwaves were linked to 2,877 fatalities. Cooper additionally confirmed that part of the £6.75bn earmarked for upgrading public buildings will be used to install air conditioning.
The health secretary's approach echoes long-standing concerns raised by the Climate Change Committee, which previously called for around £11bn in annual spending to bring the UK's climate adaptation planning up to date, as outlined in our earlier report on the UK's lagging preparations for rising heat risk. According to a national newspaper report published on 5 August 2026, Cooper's article appeared alongside official heat-health guidance directed at health and social care providers, forming part of a wider push to formalise seasonal readiness.
What is Andy Burnham doing about wildfires and disposable barbecues?
Speaking in the Downing Street garden after chairing the Cobra meeting, Burnham identified wildfires as the most pressing regional risk, describing multiple serious incidents unfolding simultaneously across the country.
The big risk in terms of risk to the wider regions across the country is the risk of wildfires. What we are seeing is multiple serious incidents across the country.
Fire services by and large are supporting each other through mutual aid to deal with those incidents, but we are keeping a very close watching brief on them.
There is advice to the public here not to use disposable barbecues. We have today confirmed through the National Fire Chiefs Council that the framework restricting the retail sale of those disposable barbecues is being extended.
Now I would ask all retailers big and small to adhere to that framework.
Longer term we will look at whether a temporary ban in the summer months is justified.
Burnham separately warned that the exceptionally hot and dry conditions driving the wildfire risk
