Prime Minister Andy Burnham will chair an emergency Cobra meeting to coordinate the government’s response to this summer’s extreme heat and worsening drought conditions.
The meeting will bring together ministers overseeing health, water, housing and local government, alongside officials from the Met Office and the Environment Agency.
Temperatures could reach as high as 38C on Thursday, with the Met Office warning of serious impacts on infrastructure, transport and health services across the country.
More than two thirds of the UK is currently in drought, including the whole of London, where water supplies are running critically low.
The Prime Minister’s spokesperson confirmed the Cobra meeting was proving to be a significant challenge for firefighters, doctors and farmers dealing with conditions on the ground.
“We will continue to take the action needed to keep communities safe, protect water supplies, support farming communities and safeguard the environment,” the spokesperson said.
Wednesday’s session will mark the second emergency Cobra meeting held this summer in direct response to high temperatures, underscoring the scale of the crisis facing the country.
City analysts have warned that the drought amounts to a “rude awakening” for food suppliers, with climatic changes now considered “here to stay” by market observers.
Angeline Ong, a senior technical analyst at investment platform IG, said the financial consequences were already mounting for the public purse.
“Extra measures to keep as much of the harvest safe as possible, increased health and safety measures, and firefighting, all cost more money, and this will end up being a further strain on public coffers,” Ong said.
She added: “This comes at a difficult time, when the impact of war, tariff tantrums, and the expected El Nino has not even been fully accounted for.”
Bank of England officials have separately cited global heatwaves as a factor capable of driving inflation higher, while economists warn the current conditions are costing the UK economy billions through productivity losses and weaker retail sales.
Martin Beck, chief economist at WPI Strategy, estimated a “reasonable” cost of heatwaves at £3bn, though he cautioned there was a “wide margin of uncertainty around that figure.”
Economists at left-wing think tank Verdant placed the figure higher still, suggesting the true cost to the UK economy was more likely to exceed £4bn.
The Office for National Statistics has warned that agricultural and construction workers are often half as productive when temperatures rise above 35C, compounding the economic damage.
Shore Capital analyst Akhil Patel warned the dry summer was on course to produce “one of the poorer harvests on record,” potentially making the UK more dependent on imported grain and raising feed costs for livestock farmers.
“Dairy farmers face much lower grass growth caused by drought and milk yields, forcing earlier use of winter forage or silage reserves and greater reliance on ‘more expensive’ purchased feed,” Patel said.
“While this is supportive for feed demand, it raises concerns around forage and silage availability, livestock profitability and wider crop production,” he added.
Patel called on the government to design a 25-year strategy aimed at strengthening food security and building resilience against the growing impacts of climate change.