A new book examined the health costs of poor housing. It analyzed the risks derived from key hazards, and the costs to the National Health Service of tackling them. It developed a cost-benefit model for analyzing the costs of unsafe and unhealthy housing. The total health cost of poor housing in England was estimated at over £600 million per year.
Source: Maggie Davidson, Mike Roys, Simon Nicol, David Ormandy and Peter Ambrose, The Real Cost of Poor Housing, BRE Press
Links: Summary
Date: 2009-Dec
The government announced a full-scale assessment of the 'Decent Homes' programme (launched in 2001 to improve England's social housing stock). It said that the poorest-performing local councils 'appeared to be going backwards', with 27 councils actually seeing an increase in their non-decent stock.
Source: Press release 8 December 2009, Department for Communities and Local Government
Links: DCLG press release | Inside Housing report
Date: 2009-Dec
A report examined how housing policy could be reformed to produce better-quality and more desirable new homes. It called for a move away from a system driven by short-term profit maximization, towards a more sustainable model that produced high-quality homes and created greater consumer choice.
Source: Improving Housing Quality: Unlocking the Market, Royal Institute of British Architects
Links: Report | RIBA press release
Date: 2009-Nov
A report presented detailed findings from the 2007 official survey of housing conditions and energy performance. Housing conditions for private sector 'vulnerable' households had improved in each year since 2001, although private tenants remained more likely to live in non-decent homes than vulnerable owners (52 per cent compared with 35 per cent respectively).
Source: English House Condition Survey 2007: Annual report, Department for Communities and Local Government (0870 1226 236)
Links: Report | Inside Housing report
Date: 2009-Sep
A survey (by an official advisory body) found that new private homes did not provide enough space for everyday activities such as preparing food easily, having friends round for dinner, or even recycling. Lower-income households suffered from more of the problems associated with a lack of space.
Source: Resident Satisfaction with Space in the Home, Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (020 7960 2400)
Links: Report | CABE press release | Guardian report
Date: 2009-Aug
A report set out a new form of financing for low-carbon refurbishment in the household sector, based on spreading the cost of refurbishment for a property over a substantial period of time, across different owners.
Source: Pay As You Save: Financing low energy refurbishment in housing, UK Green Building Council (020 7580 0623)
Links: Report | Summary | EST press release | Guardian report
Date: 2009-Aug
A report examined the potential scope of a successor standard to the official 'decent homes' standard, which would expire in around 2010. There were only six areas where it was appropriate to set national or regional standards – energy efficiency, carbon emissions, summer overheating, water use, security of the home, and serviceability of lifts.
Source: Maggie Davidson, Towards a Successor Standard to Decent Homes: Scoping report, Building Research Establishment (01923 664000)
Links: Briefing
Date: 2009-Apr
A report said that the design quality of new-build affordable housing in England was 'mixed'. 21 per cent of the schemes completed under the Housing Corporation's 2004-2008 funding rounds were sub-standard.
Source: Affordable Housing Survey: A review of the quality of affordable housing in England, Homes and Communities Agency (0300 1234 500)
Links: Report | HCA press release | Inside Housing report
Date: 2009-Apr
A report (by an official advisory body) highlighted the changes that were needed to avoid more poor-quality housing design when the market eventually recovered from the economic downturn.
Source: Richard Simmons, No More Toxic Assets: Fresh thinking on housing quality, Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (020 7960 2400)
Links: Report
Date: 2009-Apr
A report presented headline findings from the 2007 English House Condition Survey. In 2007, 7.7 million homes were non-decent, just under 35 per cent of the housing stock. This included 1.1 million homes in the social sector. The registered social landlord housing stock was in the best condition, and the private rented sector was in the worst.
Source: English House Condition Survey 2007: Headline Report, Department for Communities and Local Government (web publication only)
Links: Report
Date: 2009-Jan
A think-tank report said that government efforts to improve energy efficiency in the existing housing stock had been slow and expensive, and that the grants available were too complicated to administer.
Source: Ben Caldecott and Thomas Sweetman, Warm Homes: Delivering energy efficiency improvements in the UK, Policy Exchange (020 7340 2650)
Links: Report
Date: 2009-Jan
