The Importance Of Healthy Homes


“What are the main barriers to addressing these issues?”


There is perhaps reason to hope for improvement in the near future, with rising awareness in the industry and a number of new standards and bills in the works to put the health of a home into legislation


England’s housing stock has been shown to be woefully inadequate. When we asked our respondents whether they believe that homes have


become more healthy at all in recent decades, only a small majority (53%) agreed, and almost half (47%) argued that homes have in fact become less healthy in the same timeframe. When asked what portion of the housing stock our respondents had owned


or worked on they would describe as healthy, 2% said they would define none of their housing as such, 7% said between 10-20% of their housing stock, 11% said 30-40%, 24% said between 50-60%, 32% between 70-80%, and a quarter (25%) report 90-100%. Tis shocking amount of unsuitable housing supported the estimations of


the Good Homes Inquiry. Te Inquiry argued that the English Housing Survey’s data – which claimed that 10 million people in England are living in homes classified as ‘non decent’ – is an underestimation, not factoring in accessibility, for example. Even this potentially low-ball figure represents 17% of the total housing stock, and our data is double this, with 35% of our respondents’ housing stock being self-described as unhealthy.


PROGRESS Despite this doom and gloom, there is perhaps reason to hope for improvement in the near future, with rising awareness in the industry and a number of new standards and bills in the works to put the health of a home into legislation. Te Town and Country Planning Association’s Healthy Homes campaign,


for example, recommends that the Building Safety Bill be amended to cover a building’s health as well as safety, alongside increasing the Bill’s coverage to buildings of all heights. Tis would improve upon local councils’ capacity


“Do you believe a ‘healthier’ property costs more to maintain?”


to provide tailored support and to have more control of the quality of development. Te aforementioned Decent Homes Standard Review could make tangible changes to the quality of housing in regulations. As these movements continue in policy, however, it is only natural to


wonder, what are the reasons behind the current lack of movement from the industry itself? Our survey attempts to find the answer to this by ascertaining three things:


are housing professionals aware of and ready for these upcoming changes; do they understand what a healthy home is, and accept that unhealthy homes need to be addressed; and, if so, what then are the barriers to the adoption of these measures?


PROBLEM ASSESSMENT UNDERSTANDING HEALTHY HOMES When it came to understanding the benefits of a healthy home, our respondents were clear.


32 | HMMFebruary/March 2022 | www.housingmmonline.co.uk


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