Fund a National Climate Resilience Plan: protect communities from climate impact

From floods to extreme temperatures, climate impacts risk damaging homes, health, businesses, services, and the economy. We want Government to prioritise adaptation; fund a new Resilience Plan that works with nature and includes public education, infrastructure standards, and local funding.

We believe Government plans are failing us: what we see as a lack of preparation puts the UK’s life-support systems at risk and a focus on short-term fixes like concrete flood walls distract from deeper threats. We think a joined-up national strategy must include local funding, upland & urban flood prevention, community resilience, ecologically sound infrastructure, housing, health, food & water security. We believe that as risks grow, without strategic action, communities face devastation, so adaptation isn’t optional and must be a policy priority.

The impacts of climate change are accelerating, and the need to strengthen the UK’s resilience is more urgent than ever. Under the Climate Change Act (2008) , the government must complete a Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA) every five years, which is followed by a National Adaptation Programme (NAP), outlining how identified risks will be addressed.

The NAP provides a comprehensive framework to continually and proactively address climate risks and improve the UK’s resilience to climate impacts through effective climate adaptation interventions across sectors. These include climate impacts to nature, the built environment, infrastructure, education, health and the economy. The government also published the Resilience Action Plan in July 2025, which set out the government’s strategic vision for a stronger and more robust UK and the steps being taken to deliver this, adopting an ‘all hazards approach’ including climate change. We do not consider a separate National Climate Resilience Plan to be necessary in addition to these frameworks.

This government is taking decisive action to improve the nation’s climate resilience. In its response to the Climate Change Committee’s 2025 Adaptation Progress Report, the government set out actions that it is taking across multiple sectors. For example, we are investing more than £2.7bn a year in this parliament in farming and nature recovery. The government is building resilience into its foundational strategies for the environment, food and farming, it is also providing substantial investment in nature recovery schemes and flood defences.