Horror of tens of millions of Britons trapped in ‘twenty first century slums’

Homes are greater than only a roof over our heads. They are the inspiration of our lives. They are the place we sleep, eat and lift our households. Increasingly, they’re additionally our workplaces. 

A rising physique of proof reveals the hyperlink between poor housing and poor well being is plain. One in ten individuals are residing in poor high quality properties within the UK, and these individuals are twice as prone to have poor well being.

The knock-on results of poor properties attain each nook of our society.

Too many individuals reside in cramped, damp, dingy buildings which are unfit to name a house. Some of this is because of Permitted Development (‘PD’) – a loophole within the planning system that permits places of work and outlets to be become properties with out going by the same old checks.

People who assume that turning places of work into flats is a fast and low cost repair for the housing disaster couldn’t be extra fallacious.

These locations had been constructed to be places of work – not properties.

This is a false financial system, and now we’re all paying the worth. Every yr, the British taxpayer spends £1.4 billion treating illness arising from poor high quality housing.

The dream of proudly owning your personal house is extensively held on this nation. But that dream has by no means simply been about securing a monetary asset. It’s about feeling secure and safe in your personal ‘castle’.

For many, that dream is fading away. Whether you personal or hire, you need to stay in a house that meets primary requirements.

There is loads of authorities recommendation and coverage however there isn’t a requirement that properties safeguard our well being. We want obligatory minimal requirements. Without them, we’re constructing the slums of the longer term.

Having an unhealthy inhabitants makes us all poorer. We are extra energetic residents, associates and neighbours once we’re match and wholesome. We are additionally extra productive employees. 

Since Covid, half 1,000,000 extra individuals have been out of the work-force as a consequence of poor well being. We additionally know that insecure and poor high quality properties scale back faculty attendance.

That drags us all down, slowing our financial development and once more – including to the taxpayer’s invoice.

Opportunity and ambition is what fires our financial system. If it weren’t for the tens of millions of us who rise up every morning and go to work, we wouldn’t be capable to afford an NHS within the first place.

Housing individuals in slums undermines their capability to get schooling or rewarding, high-paying jobs. Ultimately, it undermines their life probabilities.

What’s cheaper – constructing first rate housing that helps our well being, or creating unsafe, damp and mouldy flats that want fixed repairs and make individuals in poor health and in want of NHS therapy?

The TCPA’s Healthy Homes Campaign is making an attempt to unfold the phrase and I’m working with colleagues in parliament to introduce new authorized minimal requirements.

We need all new properties to fulfill 11 Healthy Homes ‘Principles’. Each precept is backed up by proof – exhibiting that the standard of our properties does certainly have an effect on our well being.

The authorities has an exquisite alternative right here to enhance individuals’ lives. What’s stopping them? If we need to stay in a rustic that encourages individuals to be their greatest, we have now to deal with poor housing. Everything else relies on it.