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Health experts call for changes in housing policy

Pressure on the government to face up to the impact of current housing policy on ill health has intensified with the publication of three independent reports on the issue from authoritative sources. All of the reports call for effective action to reduce homelessness and improve the standard of Britain’s worst housing stock.

The first of the reports, Housing, homelessness and health, is published by the Standing Conference on Public Health. It assembles the evidence which demonstrates how bad housing causes poor mental and physical health, and argues that government policy on housing and health is inconsistent and contradictory.

For example, while there are clear standards below which homes are deemed unfit for human habitation, these are not consistently enforced. As a result, up to 5 per cent of homes in Britain fall below these standards, rising to 20 per cent in some areas such as Glasgow. In the private rented sector over 20 per cent of housing is unfit.

Government investment in improvement grants to improve the quality of housing stock is now at about one tenth of the level a decade ago, since when VAT has been introduced on improvement work and tax relief on improvement loans has been removed.

The report also argues that at least 100,000 new homes at affordable rent need to created each year to meet housing need. At present there is a shortfall of at least 40,000 homes per year against this target.

The report calls on the government to increase the supply of decent low-cost rented accommodation through an intensive programme of renewal of existing stock, creating incentives to bring empty private sector homes back into the market, allowing local authorities to invest income from council house sales in new home building, and reinstating dwindling housing association grants to pre-1993/94 levels.

The Socialist Health Association emphasises similar themes in its conference report Better housing, better health. As well as contributions from leading housing and public health researchers, the report describes the experience of Stephen Maybury, a civil engineer until 3 years ago. Since then Mr Maybury has become both unemployed and homeless.

‘Hundreds of thousands of people up and down this land have gone though what I have been though’, said Mr Maybury. ‘It is not a pleasant experience.’

The Royal College of Physicians has also stepped into the ring with the publication of Homelessness and ill health, which examines the health of homeless people and the adequacy and accessibility of the health services they need.

Such a combination of varied and widely respected organisations expressing deep concern over the adverse effects of current policy on health may at last prompt the government to reconsider its faith in the ability of the market to provide adequate housing for all.