With flooding on the rise, and Manchester recently named as the third most vulnerable place in the UK for climate related hazards, a new campaign has launched to help households and communities across Greater Manchester prepare for the impact of more extreme periods of weather.
Groundwork Greater Manchester’s Beat the Heat campaign is delivering free education and advice to communities through a programme of informative visits, raising awareness of how residents can stay cool, safe, and hydrated during periods of extreme heat, particularly for those most vulnerable. The Groundwork team will be visiting parks and community centres across Greater Manchester throughout the summer.
Groundwork Greater Manchester’s highly successful Green Doctor energy advice programme will also be extended as part of the campaign to help communities during the summer months. With 19,200 visits, £4.2m in potential household savings, and 8.5 million kg of carbon emissions reduced across the UK in the last year alone, the Green Doctor service has already been a lifeline to local families during the winter months, helping them stay warm and tackle issues such as damp and mould.
The environmental and social impact charity is also offering households expert advice as about how to retrofit their homes and are proactively engaging communities and other stakeholders about how nature-based solutions can make community and public spaces more resilient to climate change and extreme weather events.
As part of the campaign, Groundwork is also bringing an England-wide initiative, called Communities Prepared, to Rochdale. The two-year pilot project, which is being funded by Electricity Northwest, will engage with the community and voluntary sector, and local authorities, helping to facilitate conversations about extreme weather events, and equipping them with the knowledge, skills, and confidence to prepare for, respond to, and recover from a range of emergencies, including severe weather events exacerbated by climate change. The initial phase of the project hopes to reach over 500 people, with the intention to expand the project across the Greater Manchester city region.
Working alongside Rochdale Council, Groundwork Greater Manchester has already been supporting residents and communities from the aftereffects of the recent extremes including the devastating Boxing Day floods that submerged parts of Rochdale under flood waters.
In July, the Met Office confirmed that extremes of heat and rainfall in the UK are becoming the norm. With global surface temperatures continuing to rise, new research reveals that extreme heat poses serious health risks, with 7,000 heat-related deaths expected by 2050. Poorly insulated and densely built homes are a greater risk from the impact of rising temperatures.
Phil Treaton, Strategic Lead for Fuel Poverty, Retrofit & Homes at Groundwork Greater Manchester, said: “Climate change is no longer just a threat in winter – our summers are getting dangerously hot too. In Greater Manchester, these events are already unmistakable.
“The 2025 New Year’s Day floods saw the River Tame and River Mersey reach record highs, evacuating nearly 1,000 people and triggering a major emergency. The extreme heat that we saw during July 2022 is now becoming more common, and as a result we have already seen a third heatwave in 2025. All of these extreme weather events can be linked to the effects of climate change.
“By helping households and communities to be more prepared and resilient to the impact of rising temperatures, particularly those most vulnerable, we can reduce the impact of these events and help our communities to be safer, more comfortable, and better able to cope with our changing climate.
“Protecting and creating more green spaces is also going to be hugely important in tackling rising temperatures and increased flooding. By integrating nature-based solutions into our urban environments we will be able to cool and protect our homes and community spaces with ease.”
