As pressure to meet ambitious housebuilding targets grows, the Health & Housing Impact Network warns that delivery must not impact on public health. Here are its five evidence-led asks to improve health outcomes through housing.
The Building Healthy Homes at Pace project has issued a call to action for leaders and decision-makers to ensure that “viability challenges” do not undermine the creation of high-quality, secure, and affordable homes. Based on evidence gathered during the project, the network developed five asks for healthy homes.
While targets to increase supply – particularly for social housing – are welcome, the Institute of Health Equity warns that building poor-quality homes to quickly address supply issues may create long-term health problems.
Read the full write-up with links to case studies, toolkits and downloadable guide to the five asks.
Throughout 2025, the Health & Housing Impact Network brought together health and built environment professionals to identify what works to build healthy homes at scale.
“Pressure to deliver housing fast and cheaply is growing and health professionals are concerned that the focus on healthy homes may be lost,” said Catherine Max, co-convenor of the Health & Housing Impact Network.
“By bringing health and built environment professionals together, we were able to focus on the greatest opportunities for impactful collaboration and mutual learning. They included identifying measurable health outcomes, post occupancy evaluation, and securing the benefits from intensification of housing development.”
The project has outlined five “asks” for London’s leaders to ensure health equity remains at the heart of the capital’s growth:
1. Commit to health equity from start to finish
Health improvement must be embedded in planning policy, design specs, and masterplans from the outset. This includes designing for an ageing population and using clear outcome measures. Robust upfront thinking helps teams resist the inevitable pressure to compromise on quality or affordability when costs rise. Success requires strengthening public health’s capacity to contribute at every stage of the development process.
2. Think community and place
As intensification in London leads to smaller sites and taller buildings, the public realm becomes ever more vital for health. We must offset the constraints of high-density living by designing for health beyond the front door. This means creating high-quality green spaces and ensuring that walking, wheeling, or cycling are the easiest ways to reach essential services like GP surgeries and libraries.
3. Make Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) the norm
To understand how homes affect health, we must listen to lived experience. Making POE a planning requirement allows providers to see how spaces are actually used and how affordable they are to maintain. This data prevents future harm, saves long-term costs, and builds resident trust by proving the business case for health equity.
4. Prioritise action on climate change
Climate change is the greatest global threat to health, with its impacts such as overheating and extreme cold experienced unequally. Leaders must insist on designs that both mitigate and adapt to climate change. This involves centring the voices of those most at risk, including ethnically minoritised communities and those experiencing homelessness, to ensure a “just transition.”
5. Mobilise partnerships for insight and impact
No single sector can solve the housing-health crisis alone. Strategic partnerships between the NHS, environmental health, and local communities provide a richer picture of neighbourhood assets and needs. By integrating clinical evidence with lived experience, authorities can target action where poor housing conditions are most actively worsening ill health.
The Health & Housing Network encourages practitioners to share the asks and supporting evidence widely among colleagues.
The Health & Housing Impact Network is supported by Impact on Urban Health.
