The impact of climate change is beginning to be felt in the United Kingdom. Despite this, successive governments have failed to prepare the UK to adapt to these changes. New housing developments are built in areas at future risk of flooding, while much of the UK’s housing stock is poorly prepared for hotter temperatures.

While climate change mitigation attracts far more attention – and investment – relatively little attention is paid to adaptation. The government's National Adaptation Plan (NAP3) was a meaningful improvement on previous attempts, but lacked urgency and failed to provide an overall vision for what a well-adapted UK would look like. This makes it harder to set out a clear strategy.

Based on research and interviews with experts in climate change and policy-making, this report explores the options for bringing adaptation into the foreground of UK government policy-making. It recommends:

• Government embeds adaptation in core financial control mechanisms.
• Government develops indicators to enable governments, parliament and the public to monitor whether government action is helping to reduce future risk to acceptable levels.
• Parliament should improve its scrutiny of adaptation to ensure that progress is being made at the pace required to minimise both harms and long-term costs.