The Importance Of Healthy Homes INDUSTRY VIEWFINDER
The importance of healthy homes
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Poor quality housing can have a serious detrimental impact on both the physical and mental wellbeing of tenants, with the potential to cause many preventable diseases and injuries, and even death. In 2018, 17,000 people died because they couldn’t afford to heat their homes
(E3G), and in the following year, 4.1 million homes were found to fall short of even the basic minimum requirements of the Decent Homes Standard, with almost half of these homes occupied by people over the age of 55 (MHCLG). Even when looked at from a purely economic standpoint, the annual cost
to the NHS attributed to low-quality housing is estimated at £1.4 billion for first year treatment costs (Nicol et al). Research from the King’s Fund shows that money spent on remediating such housing would outweigh those costs in savings for the NHS. Tis problem has not gone unrecognised by the Government, with a review
of the Decent Homes Standard currently underway. As part of the review, recommendations were made by a report from the Good Home Inquiry, which helps to define what a decent, good, or healthy home is. Calling for a national strategy to improve England’s existing housing stock, the inquiry has defined a good home as safe, secure, easy to warm and cool, affordable, and not damaging the life chances of its inhabitants, either through its design, location or connectedness. Remediation is a key part of this, with a huge number of homes in England in need of retrofit works to ensure their safety and suitability for future tenants.
In 2018, 17,000 people died because they couldn’t afford to heat their homes (E3G), and in the following year, 4.1 million homes were found to fall short of even the basic minimum requirements of the Decent Homes Standard
It is estimated that more than 80% of the homes that will be needed by 2050 already exist today, so the Government’s current focus on new build is arguably severely misplaced. Tough this is a gargantuan task for the industry, the benefits of acting now
could literally be life saving, and research has shown that unhealthy homes are only likely to cause more issues in the future. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), by 2041, one in four people in England will be aged 65 or over, likely skyrocketing the number of vulnerable tenants in the next few decades, and many argue that the UK housing stock is falling in quality as it ages alongside the population. At first, with such dire consequences apparent, it would seem a simple choice to follow the Inquiry’s recommendations – to use the highest quality products,
“What portion of the housing stock you have owned or worked on would you describe as ‘healthy’?”
www.housingmmonline.co.uk | HMMFebruary/March 2022 | 29
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60
