Inside the Big Issue: Skin in the game

A heatwave can be uncomfortable for most of us but if you’re living on the street then it can be a matter of life and death. On 25 May, the hottest May temperature ever recorded in the UK (34.8°C) was registered in London. The very next day, the record was broken again when a temperature of 35.1°C was registered in Kew Gardens.

Following the heatwave, the Pavement magazine and Big Issue teamed up to find out how councils responded to help people experiencing homelessness through the Severe Weather Emergency Protocol (SWEP).

SWEP governs how local authorities take action to support rough sleepers, usually getting them off the streets and into emergency shelters. It’s most commonly implemented for cold weather events but councils may take action when heavy rain or high winds pose a threat to life, as well as extreme heat. Using Freedom of Information requests, we asked some of the councils with the biggest rough sleeping populations across England, based on official rough sleeping counts, how they responded to May’s heatwave.

Read the results of this investigation in this week’s magazine. Plus more on the heat sweeping much of the nation.

What else is in this week’s Big Issue?

John Bird meets Angela Rayner

It’s a hell of a time to interview Angela Rayner. Keir Starmer’s former deputy prime minister and housing secretary looks to be on the brink of returning to frontline politics as Andy Burnham’s arrival at 10 Downing Street seems assured. As it all kicked off in Westminster, here’s what she told our founder John Bird.

Dan Smith’s Letter to my Younger Self

The Bastille frontman lost himself in fantasy worlds of film and music as a teenager. Later on, he’d draw upon those formative years.

“This has forced me to think about where I was at 16. I was quite a shy, awkward, nerdy kid,” he told Big Issue.

The long, hot summer of 1976 changed the nation. What can we learn from it?

Summertime in Britain. There’s a wave of street riots; the Labour government’s led by a grey man who nobody seems to like; the Tories’ new female leader is trying on the far right’s clothes; the chancellor says we’ve run out of money; the trade unions aren’t happy; the right-wing media’s in a lather about gay rights; and down the pub, someone’s having a party and they’re playing Abba’s Dancing Queen. Sounds like 2026, right? Yes, but it’s also what was happening during the long, hot summer of 1976.

Do you have a story to tell or opinions to share about this? Get in touch and tell us more. 

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