Some don't like it hot! UK heatwaves hit manufacturers hardest – but transport firms slow to act

July 14, 2026 - PRLog -- Rising temperatures have become one of the most common forms of severe weather disruption facing UK businesses, according to the latest Office for National Statistics (ONS) Business Insights survey.

The home delivery expert Parcelhero has been analysing the latest survey, covering the period to 28 June 2026. It says the responses show that 10.3% of all UK businesses have been impacted by increased temperatures or heat in the last 12 months, up from 6.2% in the equivalent survey a year earlier.

Parcelhero's Head of Consumer Research, David Jinks M.I.L.T., says: 'The increase in the impact of heat on operations is very pronounced in manufacturing, where the proportion of businesses reporting heat-related concerns has risen more than five-fold year-on-year, from 2.2% to 12.4%.  Heat is now the single most commonly reported severe weather issue for the sector, ahead of storms (8.7%) and flooding (5.8%).

'The year-on-year shift is clearest when comparing the same summer period across both years. In manufacturing, the proportion of businesses reporting heat-related impact has risen from 2.2% in June 2025 to 12.4% in June 2026, an increase of over ten percentage points. Similarly, the retail sector has seen a smaller, but still notable, rise: from 6.1% to 8.5%. Transportation & storage (the category that includes logistics, parcels, haulage and warehousing firms) is the exception, edging down slightly from 6.8% to 5.7%. Across all UK businesses, the figure has risen from 6.2% to 10.3%.

Flooding, not heat, is the most commonly reported severe weather issue for transport & storage sector firms (7.6%), with heat and storms tied at 5.7% each. Most strikingly, only 1.4% of transport & storage businesses have taken action to adapt to temperature increases specifically, far below manufacturing (13%) and retail (6.8%) – despite 10.9% having assessed the risk as relevant to them. Cost is the leading barrier, cited by 21.8% of transport businesses, the highest of the three sectors, while just 6.4% say they haven't been prevented from acting at all.

Parcelhero has just released "2030: The High Street Fights Back?", a follow-up to its widely read 2016 report "2030: The Death of the High Street". Increasing UK temperatures are also likely to impact consumers in different ways and could play their part in the future of our town centres. The full report is available at https://www.parcelhero.com/en-gb/resources/ebooks/2030-the-high-street-fights-back