Heatwaves predicted to cost London £25bn in next decade

BBC News reports London mayor Lord Khan's warning at COP31 that continued heatwaves could cost the capital more than £25bn over ten years. The body attributes the figure to the mayor and keeps its condition. The headline drops both and turns a conditional estimate into a flat prediction.

1. Headline goes beyond the article

   Minor

   “Heatwaves predicted to cost London £25bn in next decade”

   Why this matters

   The headline says heatwaves are "predicted to cost" London £25bn. It drops both the condition attached to the figure and the name of the person who gave it.

   The impression it gives

   A reader takes £25bn as a firm forecast of what heatwaves will cost London over the next ten years.

   The context

   The body gives the figure as the mayor's warning about one scenario. Heatwaves "could cost" more than £25bn "if the scenes we saw this summer became the standard". It is City Hall's own estimate, offered in a political speech, not an independent prediction.

   How we know

   • Elsewhere in the article“If the scenes we saw this summer became the standard, it could cost London's economy more than £25bn”
   • Elsewhere in the article“could cost the capital more than £25bn over the next decade, the city's mayor Lord Khan has warned”

   Show it in the article