A briefing paper examined health issues in housing. It drew on examples of innovation in approach and good practice to investigate areas such as strategic planning, assistive technology, housing conditions and health inequalities, safety, security and well-being, housing choices and diversity.
Source: Health and Housing, Good Practice Briefing 29, Chartered Institute of Housing (024 7685 1700)
Links: Summary
Date: 2004-Oct
A report said that almost 1 in 10 children (905,000) in England were living in overcrowded conditions. It called for greater investment in affordable, family-sized homes.
Source: Liam Reynolds, Nicola Robinson, and Rita Diaz, Crowded House: Cramped living in England s housing, Shelter (020 7505 4699)
Links: Report (pdf) | Shelter press release
Date: 2004-Oct
An audit of housing developments in England concluded that 4 out of 5 buyers of new-build houses and flats had to settle for mediocre properties. Planners, developers and highways engineers gave too much prominence to car parking and roads, and rarely used local materials that could help create a sense of place and character.
Source: Housing Audit: Assessing the Design Quality of New Homes, Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (020 7960 2400)
Links: Report (pdf) | Summary (pdf) | CABE press release
Date: 2004-Oct
A briefing paper said that people with asthma were more than twice as likely to live in damp houses; and that children had a greater prevalence of respiratory symptoms, as well as headaches and fevers, compared to children in dry houses.
Source: Housing and the Asthma Epidemic in Wales, Shelter Cymru (01792 469400)
Links: Report (pdf) | Shelter press release | BBC report
Date: 2004-Jul
The government responded to a report by a committee of MPs on the its target for decent homes. It denied that it was in danger of not meeting its target of bringing all social housing up to the 'decent homes' standard by 2010.
Source: Government Response to the ODPM: Housing, Planning, Local Government and the Regions Committee's Report on Decent Homes, Cm 6266, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Response (pdf) | MPs report | ODPM press release | Guardian report
Date: 2004-Jul
All housing associations replying to a survey expected 100 per cent of their properties to meet or exceed the decent homes standard by the deadline of 2010. There had been a 33 per cent decrease in the number of homes which would fail the standard, relative to the previous survey in 2002. Around 21 per cent of stock owned by associations would fail the standard if tested immediately.
Source: Housing Association Progress Towards the Decent Homes Standard, Housing Corporation (020 7393 2000)
Links: Report (pdf) | Housing Corporation press release
Date: 2004-Jul
As part of the 2004 Spending Review, the government's decent homes target was amended to include a reference to families with children, 'in recognition of the government's commitment to tackling child poverty'. The amended target read: 'By 2010, bring all social housing into a decent condition with most of this improvement taking place in deprived areas, and for vulnerable households in the private sector, including families with children, increase the proportion who live in homes that are in decent condition'.
Source: Stability, Security and Opportunity for All: Investing for Britain s long-term future - 2004 Spending Review/New public spending plans 2005-2008, Cm 6237, HM Treasury, TSO (0870 600 5522) | 2004 Spending Review: Public Service Agreements 2005-2008, Cm 6238, HM Treasury, TSO
Links: Spending Review report (pdf links) | PSAs (pdf) | PSAs (pdf links)
Date: 2004-Jul
Researchers found that design awards for housing did not generally appear to have a significant direct influence on wider industry practice.
Source: Mike Biddulph, Alan Hooper and John Punter, Evaluating the Impact of Design Awards for Housing, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, available from RIBA Enterprises Ltd (020 7256 7222)
Links: Report (pdf) | Summary (pdf)
Date: 2004-May
A report reviewed existing evidence on the impact of overcrowded housing on people's health and education.
Source: Tim Brown, Rob Baggott, Ros Hunt and Kathryn Jones, The Impact of Overcrowding on Health & Education: Review of the evidence and literature, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (0870 1226 236)
Links: Report (pdf) | Summary (pdf) | Shelter press release
Date: 2004-May
A report by a committee of MPs said that the government was in danger of not meeting its target of bringing all social housing up to the 'decent homes' standard by 2010. It also said that the policy was being used to disguise a drive to end local government control of council housing.
Source: Decent Homes, Fifth Report (Session 2003-04), HC 46, House of Commons Office of the Deputy Prime Minister: Housing, Planning, Local Government and the Regions Select Committee, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: Report | Guardian report
Date: 2004-May
A report proposed a new 'code for sustainable building', setting out best practice standards on energy efficiency, flood resilience, water consumption, greenhouse gas emissions, and waste production.
Source: Sustainable Buildings Task Group, Better Buildings - Better Lives, Department of Trade and Industry (0870 150 2500), Office of the Deputy Prime Minister and Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Links: Report (pdf) | DEFRA press release | ODPM press release | Guardian report
Date: 2004-May
The government said that the number of non-decent homes in the social sector had been reduced by 1 million since 1997. It also announced 58 new schemes, involving investment of up to 3 billion, to reduce the number of non-decent homes by a further 170,000. But the extra money was conditional on local councils relinquishing control of their housing to housing associations, arm's-length management organisations, or privately funded consortiums.
Source: Press release 5 May 2004, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (020 7944 3000) | House of Commons Hansard, Written Ministerial Statement 5 May 2004, column 80WS, TSO (0870 600 5522)
Links: ODPM press release | Leaflet (pdf) | Case studies (pdf) | Factsheet | Hansard | Guardian report
Date: 2004-May
Campaigners said that more than a million children were growing up in squalid housing that was damaging their health, education and life prospects.
Source: Sarah Jones, Toying with their Future: The hidden cost of the housing crisis, Shelter (020 7505 4699)
Links: Report (pdf) | Shelter press release | National Energy Action press release | Guardian report | Community Care report
Date: 2004-Apr
The 2002-03 British Crime Survey showed that 1.5 per cent of respondents reported experiencing a domestic fire in the previous 12 months. This prevalence rate was equal to that reported in the previous sweep (2001-02) and represented a stabilising of the downward trend in fires reported in the BCS since 1994.
Source: Georgina Ford, Fires in the Home: Findings from the 2002/3 British Crime Survey, Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (0870 1226 236)
Links: Report (pdf)
Date: 2004-Feb
Following consultation, the Scottish Executive announced a new 'housing quality standard' defining what constituted acceptable good quality housing. Local authorities and other registered social landlords would have until 2015 to meet the standard. The standard would apply across all housing tenures, and local authorities would be encouraged to use it to monitor the condition of private housing. A summary of the consultation responses was also published. Campaigners criticised the standard for failing to address the problem of noise.
Source: Letter 4 February 2004, Scottish Executive (0131 244 0768) | Modernising Scotland's Social Housing: Consultation report, Scottish Executive, TSO (0870 606 5566) | Press release 4 February 2004, Shelter Scotland (0131 473 7170)
Links: Letter (pdf) | Consultation summary | SE press release | CIH Scotland press release | Shelter press release
Date: 2004-Feb
A government minister reportedly said that the government was abandoning a previous commitment to give all tenants the right to a decent home even if they opted to keep their council landlord. This followed a vote by tenants in the London borough of Camden (by a margin of more than 3 to 1) against a plan to let their homes be managed by an 'arm's length management organisation' - campaigners had argued that this would represent a first step towards privatisation.
Source: Comments by Keith Hill MP, reported in The Guardian, 28 January 2004
Links: Guardian report (1) | Statement text (Word file) | Guardian report (2) | Defend Council Housing campaign report pdf)
Date: 2004-Jan
