The real cost of poor housing

Abstract

The relationship between poor housing and poor health has been recognised for a long time, but until recently it has not been possible to estimate the cost to society of poor housing. Although the problems of disease associated with slum living have largely been eradicated in England, a significant number of health and safety hazards in the home remain. �Poor housing� is defined as housing which fails to meet the statutory minimum standard for housing in England, as assessed by the Housing Health and Safety Rating System. This report highlights weaknesses in existing models of the housing stock and proposes a new model which overcomes them. The model uses data from the English House Condition Survey to illustrate the effects of various scenarios and repair options. It allows all the hazards measured in the Survey to be compared, and identifies repair solutions which provide direct benefit to the NHS through reduced injury rates and treatment costs. This model allows the total health cost of poor housing in England to be estimated as over £600 million per year. The total cost to society each year may be greater than £1.5 billion.

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