UK could run out of air-con units, engineer says

An air conditioning engineer said he expected the supply of units to run dry across the UK over the coming weeks.

Nick Burton, who runs an air conditioning firm in Ely, Cambridgeshire, said inquiries had skyrocketed as temperatures soared in last week's heatwave.

"Within a few weeks, I think we're going to see something like we've never seen before," he said. "I don't think there will be many units left in the UK."

He described increasingly hot summers as a "turning point for the industry".

"[Air conditioning] is not just a luxury anymore. I think it's become a necessity," he told Dotty McLeod on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.

Burton said his company received more than 900 inquiries about air conditioning installation over the past week, compared to up to 30 in a normal week in the summer.

But he said his suppliers had not increased the cost of units to match the rising demand.

Dean Franklin, air conditioning entrepreneur and winner of the BBC series The Apprentice, also said he could see air conditioning becoming the norm in UK homes.

"Nowadays, you wouldn't dream of buying a car without air conditioning. It pretty much comes as standard," he told BBC Newsbeat last week.

"I think that's going to be the case going forward in people's homes."

The UK's highest ever June temperature was recorded on 26 June at 37.7C (99.9F), smashing the previous high of 35.6C (96F) set in 1957.

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