‘That’s why we work in finance – so one day we can afford air-con’: Britain’s unequal heatwave

Travelling from his air-conditioned flat to the air-conditioned Elizabeth line to his air-conditioned office, 27-year-old banker Aykhan found this week’s heatwave a breeze. Smiling while grabbing lunch in the shopping centre under the gleaming One Canada Square skyscraper in Canary Wharf, he said he’d been sleeping very well over the last few days. “It’s a new flat, the air-con is great, my bedroom is cool.” He hadn’t been affected by the heatwave, but said: “I think my colleagues have. We have higher attendance in the office this week because it has AC.” One Elizabeth line stop away in Whitechapel, one of the most deprived areas in the UK, Asiyha, 26, was having a very different experience. Sitting under a tree in Weavers Fields, she tried to sooth her baby, who is not yet one. Commuters are warned about the hot weather outside the Canary Wharf station in London. Photograph: Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters “It is way too hot in my flat, that is why we are sitting outside,” she said. “I live right nearby. My baby is struggling. We are in a very hot flat and we cannot sleep at night.” England recorded the hottest days in May in history this week, with London temperatures reaching 35C. There have been consecutive “tropical nights”, where theheat does not dip below 20C, making it hard for those without air-con to sleep. Some homes, many of those in poorer areas and not built for extreme heat, have become furnaces. …