Warm sticky nights are becoming more and more common in the UK.

Climate change is raising temperatures, but one factor that adds to that is often ignored. Walk down a city street and you see what would have been front gardens a decade or so ago have now been tarmacked over and turned into driveways.

Individually these changes might seem small, but as more and more gardens disappear this increase in hard driveways can alter the way neighbourhoods heat up during the day and cool down at night. It’s an issue that is suddenly on more people’s minds this summer as they struggle to sleep.

According to a UK’s Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) report in 2025, 42% of domestic garden space is now paved over, including 55% of front garden space.

In 2005, only about 8% of UK front gardens were fully paved. By 2015, that figure had tripled to roughly 24%.

Estimates from the RHS suggest there are 20.6 million domestic gardens (front and back) in the UK, covering around 502,757 hectares. The UK’s domestic gardens together cover an area around three times larger than all national nature reserves combined, giving them enormous potential to support wildlife.

Replacing vegetation with hard surfaces also shrinks habitat for plants and wildlife while increasing surface runoff and the risk of flooding.

The desire for more off-street........

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