The committee has voiced this view to the government in its latest report ‘Heatwaves: adapting to climate change’.

This claimed that modular homes were not resilient to heatwaves and the committee believed that public money was being used to support the construction of them.

The report stated that at current temperatures, one in five homes in the UK overheats.

In the UK, there are around 15,000 modular homes built each year, according to a study by Pinsent Masons in February 2017.

The study highlighted that, within the UK, capacity was constrained because there were only a small number of factories that could produce modular housing.

In addition, the committee’s report revealed that certain types of homes (single aspect flats, houses built in the 1960s and 70s) and densely populated urban areas could be at significant risk of overheating.

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It also claimed that there was currently no building regulation to prevent overheating in buildings and that the tests used to identify overheating were weak and ineffective.

However, the committee alleged that it heard uncertainty from government ministers about whether the building regulations should be used to protect human health.

The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers believed that building regulations should be changed to protect health and it has created a series of tests to prevent buildings overheating at design stage.

“The government needs to do more to warn the public of the health risks of heatwaves – particularly when they fall outside of the summer period – and should appoint a minister to lead work across government,” said Mary Creagh MP, chair of the Environmental Audit Committee.

“The government’s new adaptation plan promises no effective action to prevent overheating in buildings. 

“It must change building regulations and planning policies to ensure homes and transport networks are able to deal with extreme heat, and that local authorities and cities have green spaces and heat-resilient infrastructure.”