Quantifying the health benefits of the Decent Homes programme FB 64

BRE ( Building Research Establishment ) is an independent, research-based consultancy, testing and training organisation, operating in the built environment and associated industries.

Decent housing is a preventative service that helps to reduce costs to the NHS, for example, by providing the right environment for people to stay safe and well, to be treated in or closer to home when they are ill and to recover quickly from episodes of ill health after a shorter time in hospital.

Quantifying the health benefits of the Decent Homes programme (FB 64) was written by Helen Garrett, Maggie Davidson, Mike Roys, Simon Nicol and Viv Mason and published by BRE on 14 Apr 2014.

This 40-page report quantifies how much the improvements to social housing arising from the Decent Homes programme (2001–2010) have reduced the costs to the NHS of treating housing-related injuries and illnesses. It uses the same methodology developed to calculate the costs of poor housing in England described in BRE’s 2010 report The real cost of poor housing.

The report also discusses:

• The additional costs to society of non-decent homes.
• The impact of less serious, but still significant levels of Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS) hazards.
• The work that remains to be done in terms of dealing with homes that are still non-decent.
• The importance of maintaining standards in dwellings that are currently decent.

Its contents include:

• Foreword.
• Executive summary.
• Introduction.
• Overview of methods and background.
• Estimating the actual reduction in hazards between 2001 and 2010.
• Estimating the cost of work required to make homes decent.
• Estimating the reduction in costs to the NHS.
• Additional costs to society of non-decent homes and the benefits of improving them.
• What is left to do.
• Conclusions.
• References.
• Appendices.

--BRE Group

[edit] Related articles on Designing Buildings Wiki

• BRE articles on Designing Buildings Wiki.
• BRE Buzz articles on Designing Buildings Wiki.
• BREEAM.
• Building Research Establishment.
• Decent Homes for Ageing Well.
• Decent homes standard.
• Housing contribution to regeneration.
• The cold man of europe 2015.
• The cost of poor housing to the NHS.
• The cost-benefit to the NHS arising from preventative housing interventions (FB82).
• The full cost of poor housing.
• The full cost of poor housing in Wales.
• The real cost of poor housing.