Flood waters surrounding houses in Wraysbury, Berkshire in January 2024. Greater London and Yorkshire and the Humber are two regions at particular risk in the coming years. Photograph: Daniel Leal/AFP/Getty Images
Every constituency projected to be at greater risk, with many areas likely to be uninsurable, Guardian investigation finds
Millions more homes in England, Scotland and Wales face devastating floods, and some towns may have to be abandoned as climate breakdown makes many areas uninsurable, a Guardian investigation has found.
New analysis from the insurance industry, seen by the Guardian, reveals the extent of concern in the sector, with bosses warning that large swathes of housing and commercial property in densely populated areas will be at greater risk.
Separately, experts have said that some towns may need to be abandoned as homes and businesses struggle to get insurance in areas repeatedly battered by storms and rising sea levels.
Densely populated areas including London, Manchester and parts of north-east England, are likely to be worst hit. Experts also say London’s flood defences need to be updated urgently to protect the capital from devastating floods.
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Orcas comment on killer apes destroying the planet by continuing to burn fossil fuels.Neo-Fascist Climate Science Denier Donald Trump says Burn, Baby, Burn.Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him and his Deputy Richard Tice. He says that Reform UK has received £Millions and £Millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.
Israeli soldiers sit on the top of tank parked on an area near the Israeli-Gaza border, as seen from southern Israel, August 18, 2025
THE call for sanctions against Israel becomes louder and louder each day. As we witness hourly reminders of Israel’s brutal occupation of Palestinian land and the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people, the letter from politicians in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales is the latest in a long line of demands for the British government to step up to its responsibilities under international law.
While Keir Starmer and David Lammy may claim to disapprove of Israel’s genocidal suppression of the Palestinian people, even extending at times to strong criticism, if they actually wanted to see an end to Israeli action, they could take decisive steps to end British complicity in genocide and isolate Israel within the international community.
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The British people are overwhelmingly opposed to the genocide taking place in Palestine, and for once, our government should seek to represent us on the international stage, be a voice for peace, joining South Africa and many other countries in their case at the International Court of Justice.
However, as we saw with decades of British government support for apartheid in South Africa, we cannot rely on politicians and the work to shift their support for repressive regimes must be carried out through mass pressure.
It is the job of the trade union movement, the peace and anti-war movement, and the progressive left to mobilise the British people on an increasing scale to oppose genocide and to defy the use of repressive legislation against those raising their voices.
Together, we must struggle to end our government’s complicity with genocide and in solidarity with the Palestinian people.
Genocide denier and Current UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is quoted that he supports Zionism without qualification. He also confirms that UK air force support has been essential in Israel’s mass-murdering genocide. Includes URLs https://www.declassifieduk.org/keir-starmers-100-spy-flights-over-gaza-in-support-of-israel/ and https://youtu.be/O74hZCKKdpAUK Labour Party government ministers Keir Starmer, Angela Rayner and Rachel Reeves explain that they are partners complicit in Israel’s Gaza genocide. The UK has provided Israel with arms, military and air force support. They explain that they don’t do gas chambers but do do forced marches, starvation, destroy hospitals, mass-murders of journalists and healthcare workers.Vote Labour for Genocide.
Wildfires have scorched more than 40,000 hectares of land so far this year across the UK – an area more than twice the size of the Scottish city of Glasgow.
This is already a record amount of land burned in a single year, far exceeding the previous high, Global Wildfire Information System (GWIS) data shows.
It is also almost four times the average area burned in wildfires by this stage of the year over 2012-24 – and 50% higher than the previous record amount burned by this time in 2019.
The burned area overtook the previous annual record in April, BBC News reported at the time, and has continued to soar in the months since.
Major wildfires
The chart below shows that UK wildfires in 2025 so far have already burned by far the largest area of land over any calendar year since GWIS records began in 2012. The previous record year was 2019, followed by 2022, while 2024 saw the lowest area size burned.
Annual land area burned by wildfires across the UK from 2012 to 2025 (red), alongside the average area burned each year over 2012-24. Source: Global Wildfire Information System.
Climate change can increase the risk and impact of wildfires. Warmer temperatures and drought can leave land parched and dry out vegetation, which helps fires spread more rapidly. Climate change is making these types of extreme conditions more likely to occur, as well as more severe.
Fire services in England and Wales responded to 564 wildfires from January to June 2025 – an increase from 69 fires in the same period last year, the National Fire Chiefs Council (NFCC) said in a statement in June.
Most wildfires in the UK are caused by human activity, whether accidental or deliberate, according to the NFCC. Some common ignition sources are disposable barbecues, lit cigarettes and campfires.
Jessica Richter, a research analyst at Global Forest Watch, says that, while fires are also a key part of some ecosystems, climate change is the “major driver behind the increasing fire activity around the globe”. She tells Carbon Brief:
“As we see more fires, we’re going to see more carbon being emitted and that’s just going to be, for lack of a better phrasing, adding fuel to the fire.”
Examples of 2025 wildfires around Galloway (1) and Inverness (2) in Scotland, and a wildfire in Powys (3) in Wales. Source: FIRMS, MapTiler, OpenStreetMap contributors.
The UK has also recorded its highest-ever wildfire emissions this year, according to Copernicus, which was “primarily driven” by major wildfires in Scotland from late June to early July.
These were the largest wildfires ever recorded in the country, reported the Scotsman. They “ravaged” land in Moray and the Highlands in the north of the country, the newspaper added.
Scotland experienced an extreme wildfire in Galloway Forest Park in April, which was “so intense it could be seen from space”, the Financial Times said.
Elsewhere, in April, the Belfast News Letter reported that firefighters tackled almost 150 fires on the Mourne Mountains in Northern Ireland.
More recently, BBC News reported that firefighters in Dorset, England received “non-stop” wildfire calls in the first weekend of August, with one blaze “engulf[ing] an area the size of 30 football pitches”.
Wildfires have also caused devastation across many parts of Europe in recent weeks – including Albania, Cyprus, France, Greece, Spain and Turkey – as well as in the US and Canada.
Words by Orla Dwyer. Analysis by Ho Woo Nam. Charts by Tom Prater.
Nigel Farage urges you to ignore facts and reality and be a climate science denier like him. He says that Reform UK has received millions and millions from the fossil fuel industry to promote climate denial and destroy the planet.Donald Trump urges you to be a Climate Science denier like him. He says that he makes millions and millions for destroying the planet, Burn, Baby, Burn and Flood, Baby, Flood.
CAMPAIGNERS intensified demands for limits on rent hikes after damning new research found that rents are soaring at triple the rate of inflation.
New figures from the Office for National Statistics have shown that the average rent in Britain has increased by 7.7 per cent to £1,332 in the last 12 months to March.
The increase is three times more than the current level of Consumer Price Index inflation, which measures how much the overall price of everyday goods and services has increased.
The figures show a steep 8.9 per cent increase in Wales, where the average rent is £792. In Scotland, rents were up by 5.7 per cent to £1,001.
According to a December 2024 report from Zoopla, rents for new lets are now £270 per month higher than they were three years ago.
The figures mean that a staggering £3,240 has been added to the annual cost of renting since 2021, equating to a 27 per cent increase.
Generation Rent chief executive Ben Twomey said: “When we are forced to spend too much of our income on rent, the effects ripple across the rest of our lives.
A view of the Senedd, the Welsh parliament building in Cardiff
POLITICIANS and candidates in Wales who deliberately lie should face punishment, a Senedd scrutiny committee recommended last night.
The Senedd standards of conduct committee said truthfulness from politicians is essential to rebuild public trust in politics and the way Members of the Senedd (MSs) are held to account must be strengthened.
In January, the committee published a report calling for a new “recall” system, allowing the Senedd to recommend that voters can choose to remove and replace a Member of the Senedd (MS) if they seriously breach the Code of Conduct.
But now the committee is going further, calling on the Welsh government to strengthen the law to prevent and punish politicians and election candidates who deliberately lie.
Israeli soldiers sit on the top of tank parked on an area near the Israeli-Gaza border, as seen from southern Israel, August 18, 2025
