Delivering for housing, climate change and health equity

Programme launch event 11 June 2024

“Housing, for me, is having a home which is warm, energy efficient, safe and secure.” Dipti Patel, Chair of LEDNet and Corporate Director, Place, London Borough of Harrow

For our second year, the Health and Housing Impact Network is focusing on planning, designing and delivering housing for climate change and health equity. We launched the programme by setting out the strategic context and case for action. And we gave a taster of the new build and retrofit schemes through which we will explore in more detail the opportunities and challenges for achieving positive outcomes.

You can watch the video of the whole event here, featuring our keynote speakers Greg Fell, President of the Association of Directors of Public Health UK and Director of Public Health, Sheffield City Council, and Dipti Patel, Chair of LEDNet and Corporate Director, Place, London Borough of Harrow.

Key themes and practical suggestions

Below are a few stand-out observations and suggestions arising from the event, with some pointers to further reading and resources.

We need holistic housing policy to meet needs fairly and sustainably

“In London alone, there are nearly enough under-occupied bedrooms to meet the housing needs of all overcrowded and homeless households in England.” UCL Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose

There is evidence that England’s existing housing stock is sufficient to meet the needs of its population. Moreover, under-occupied housing has a significant ecological cost: the carbon emission intensity of households with under-occupied bedrooms is 25% higher than the average. 90% of such homes are owner-occupied, with a minority in the private rented sector and almost none in social housing.

Housing policies for health and climate equity should, therefore, address available space and how it is used as well as the supply of new homes.

Housing can drive a just transition to a greener economy

“Sustainable skilled jobs will yield an equity dividend.” Greg Fell

Retrofit London aims to achieve an average Energy Performance Certificate Level (EPC) of ‘B’ by 2030 through mass home retrofitting. The green sector is already significant for London and set to grow, presenting an opportunity to help disadvantaged Londoners into good quality jobs with a future. Employment is itself a major determinant of health.

“London’s housing stock contributes to nearly one-third of the capital’s carbon emissions, highlighting a pressing need for action. Around 80% of all homes expected to exist in 2050 have already been built, so home retrofitting … is essential for making London’s homes greener, warmer and more affordable to live in.” Retrofit London | London Councils

Further reading: Green Jobs and Skills for Londoners: Cross-London report published – West London Alliance (wla.london)

Network member suggestion: The Don’t Waste Buildings LinkedIn group is for those interested in the multiple environmental, social and economic benefits of reusing existing buildings.

Commercial determinants of health skew the narrative

As with tobacco, the oil industry has the resources and hence power to shape decisions and behaviours at every level, notably government investment and subsidy policies which continue to favour fossil fuels. In addition to downplaying the health and climate impacts, this includes framing solutions in terms of individual responsibilities rather than systemic change. There is an argument that promoting individual action, itself with limited effect, in turn weakens support for collective or political action.

Podcast suggestion: In this episode of the Money Power Health podcast, Dr Nason Maani speaks to Gran Ennis, author of Dark PR: How corporate disinformation undermines our health and the environment.

Further reading: Individual responsibility: a red herring that lets the fossil fuel industry off the climate catastrophe hook | The BMJ

Counter with compelling stories which link housing, health and climate experiences

“Use the human face to tell the story.” Andy Love, Founder, Shade the UK/Managing Director, Love Design Studio

It is crucial to capture human stories and use them to convey the impacts on health of climate change and extreme weather – particularly how groups already disadvantaged are worst affected. Listening to residents’ experiences of retrofitted homes and using new technologies will also lead to more effective campaigns and communications about planned changes as well as how to use new technologies and heating or cooling systems in their new or retrofitted homes.

See network member Shade the UK’s 40 Degree stories offering personal accounts of how people were affected by the 2022 heatwaves.

Further reading: Poor housing and Covid deaths: it’s the same damn map (architectsjournal.co.uk)

Next steps for housing for health and climate change equity

“In the last year, health and housing has been everywhere, which is fabulous.” Paul Karakusevic, Principal, Karakusevic Carson

Results from a poll during the event demonstrate that our network does feel relatively confident about their ability to achieve health and climate objectives through their work. Around 75% of respondents felt confident, 6% felt very confident, with no respondents saying they are not confident at all. There are, however, some key barriers to our members achieving more for health and climate change equity through housing projects. The key barriers they put forward were:

Funding and finance.
Resources and skills of local authority teams.
Restrictive policy, or policies that don’t go far enough.
Clients not prioritising health and climate.

The Health and Housing Impact Network will help to address some of these challenges that are hampering progress. We are working to create two decision making maps that will support people working in new build and retrofit housing projects to better understand how to deploy resources efficiently and make informed decisions to better prioritise health and housing outcomes.

Supported by Impact on Urban Health

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