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This summer is almost certainly set to be the hottest ever recorded in the UK with the impacts of consecutive heatwaves dominating the national agenda. The disruption that this has caused has been stark. Estimates from think tank Verdant suggest that, so far, this has cost the UK's economy at least £4.4billion in lost output. But the impact goes far beyond the financial figures.Areas like Suffolk and the West Midlands have been devastated by wildfires in recent weeks. The human impact has been impossible to ignore, to the extent that Prime Minister Andy Burnham has chaired an emergency COBR meeting and made use of the UK's emergency alerts system.Looking to the years ahead, our summers are set to be increasingly defined by extreme weather of this kind so it's critical that we learn lessons and build resilience in our society to ensure we're better prepared for disruptive events like this. This doesn't just apply to extreme heat, which happens to be the latest example. Global pandemics, major flooding and global conflict have all also brought significant disruption to our daily lives and undermined economic and societal functions in recent years.The value of being preparedDisruption is a constant in our current era, yet despite being fundamentally unpredictable, there are steps we can and should be taking to prepare our communities for it – whatever guise it might come in.We recently conducted research in Cumbria which found that for every £1 that is invested into building societal resilience, £35.12 is created in long-term public value across a five-year cycle through benefits like lower economic losses or reduced strain on emergency services. In the long-term this investment is about offering better protection to people and their communities, but it will also drive down costs for the public sector.Local authorities have a crucial role to play in this. Although they only account for 3% of this investment, their unique understanding of local challenges and pain points and ability to act as a local convenor means this 3% can have a disproportionally higher impact.So, how can local authorities make their investment go the extra mile to build this societal resilience?It's about people, not just projectsWhile projects like local flood defences are undeniably important in reducing the impact of disruptive events, creating greater resilience capacity also requires communities to help themselves and each other.Resilience requires more than a ‘what we do during incidents' approach, and it needs to be something that's worked on all-year round. Budgets are of course limited, and this isn't about asking for large-scale investments to bring in a cadre of new local authority staff.Instead, it's about ensuring there is a minimum baseline of work being done consistently in this area to help communities to self-help. This can be multi-disciplinary in approach, crossing into existing areas of work like public health, communications and community development. The key is establishing structures and processes so that the necessary plans and relationships exist before any disruption hits – make friends before you need them.This can then allow local authorities to use their position to act as a convenor, turning the whole of society into a local operating model and crisis response ecosystem.Local governments are well placed to bring together community groups, businesses, the voluntary sector, emergency services and utilities to agree who is responsible for what in a whole-of-society approach. This can then help communities to take action to prepare for, or in some cases avoid, these disruptive events, or ensure clear plans are in place when it comes to the immediate response and long-term recovery.Empowering community groups means they can then respond and recover faster, which reduces demand on state services at a time when budgets are constrained. Offering training, insurance support, equipment or volunteer co-ordination are just some of the steps local authorities can take to help develop a community self-help infrastructure that can be a strong foundation for resilient societies.Making the caseThese measures will take up time and resources, but one of the reasons we conducted this research was to highlight the financial argument for sustained funding into societal resilience.Money invested now can be money saved by reducing future costs of increased health spending, economic losses, emergency responses and infrastructure recovery when disruption occurs. But this can only be achieved through consistent, multi-year funding as opposed to one-off projects.There is a strong economic case for authorities to consider this in their cabinet discussions, which can then also be communicated to local businesses to encourage them to invest in their own resilience.The £35.12 figure demonstrates the monetary value this can provide, but that doesn't mean it's the full story. This is also about making sure the most vulnerable people in our communities are supported during times of upheaval and minimising the impact of disruptive events on people's everyday lives.That's what it means to build a truly resilient society, and local authorities have a critical role to play in this. Duncan Shaw is professor of operational research and critical systems and Andrew McClelland is a research fellow at Alliance Manchester Business School

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RESILIENCE

Building resilient communities before the next crisis

By Duncan Shaw, Andrew McClelland | 27 August 2026

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