People within the UK at the moment are spending fewer years in good health than they did a decade ago, in response to a brand new evaluation by the Health Foundation. The UK is now at the underside of 21 countries, ahead of only the US.
The decline in healthy life expectancy is explained by many aspects: obesity, alcohol, drugs, suicide, chronic disease, poverty and rising inequality. But one of the vital powerful reasons sits above all of them: housing. Where and the way people live is considered one of the major aspects determining how health risks arise and are distributed in society.
gave UK Housing Review is an annual independent review of housing policy and evidence, written by housing experts and published by the Chartered Institute of Housing. Its latest edition, to which we contributed, identifies several interconnected ways through which housing affects health.
A key factor is affordability – housing costs shape where people can live, whether or not they can heat their homes, whether or not they can afford food and transport, whether or not they can move for work, whether or not they can leave unsafe or unsuitable accommodation and whether or not they live with chronic financial stress.
In Britain, house prices are high by historical standards and poor housing is widespread. The review found that non-public rents at the moment are at their highest recorded share of income, while hundreds of thousands of homes in England still face serious health and safety risks.
When housing becomes unaffordable, individuals are forced to trade. For example, cheaper trade-offs for damp or overcrowded homes. They cut heating, food, medicine, transportation and social participation. They transcend public services, work and support networks. Affordability issues also force many individuals into cheaper, less secure, tenancies.
Poor housing quality directly affects health. Cold, damp, mold, decay, poor ventilation and unsafe homes are directly related. Respiratory disease, Cardiovascular risk, Mental health issues And Low welfare.
gave Building Research EstablishmentAn independent research body has estimated that poor housing in England costs the NHS £1.4 billion a 12 months. More than half of that is on account of cold homes, which increase the danger of respiratory disease, cardiovascular problems and poor mental health. They are especially dangerous for older people, children and other people with existing health conditions.
But the broader costs are even greater. Poor sleep, stress, school disruption, insecure work, social isolation and caregiving stress all affect mental and physical health. They increase pressure on families and over time on health, education and social care systems.
Jelena Stanojkovic
Historically within the UK, social housing has provided some protection to those unable to access good quality inexpensive housing on the open market. But stock There has been a decline in social rented housing in the UK.. This means individuals are increasingly counting on (often expensive) market rents, where the standard, size and placement of accommodation is more directly depending on income.
gave Growth in the private rental sector This century has meant that increasingly households have been exposed not only to higher housing costs, but additionally to lower tenancies and fewer security than traditionally provided social housing.
gave Tenants’ Rights Act Increases security, but “no fault” doesn’t eliminate evictions altogether and does little to guard tenants from the economic pressures that can lead to evictions. The cognitive burden of worrying about evictions, arrears, repairs or the following rent increase Direct health hazard.
Recent evidence also suggests that unsafe housing may result. Biological aging is increasing significantly.just like the consequences of more traditional health concerns resembling smoking.
Additional weeks of biological aging per 12 months from various aspects
Amy Claire
is the number of individuals living in temporary accommodation. increased dramaticallyReaching 130,000 households in early 2025. This is a 156% increase on 2010, largely on account of the poor affordability of the private rented sector and the dearth of insecurity and social housing. Temporary accommodation is insufficient accommodation, especially for kids. Living in temporary housing was a key consider this. Deaths Of at the least 104 children in England between 2019 and 2025, 76 were under the age of 1.
It’s not only in regards to the quality of accommodation. Temporary accommodation reflects multiple risks brought together: poverty, overcrowding, poor conditions, instability, lack of secure sleeping space for kids, poor access to services and wider racial and social inequalities. The National Child Mortality Database identifies temporary housing as a contributing factor to frailty, sick health or death, not necessarily the only cause. Emerging evidence Transient housing also links to stillbirth and neonatal death.
Housing Health Inequalities
ONS data Shows huge differences in healthy life expectancy between essentially the most and least deprived areas. In 2022-24, healthy life expectancy in essentially the most deprived areas of England was just 49.8 years for men and 48.2 years for ladies, compared with 69.2 and 68.5 years within the least deprived areas.
Housing contributes to this difference, determining whether people live in homes that support recovery or exacerbate stress, whether children grow up in stable and secure environments, and whether older people can remain warm and independent.
If the federal government is serious about it. The stated purpose To “halve the gap in healthy life expectancy between the richest and poorest regions”, housing policy must turn into health policy.
i.e. investment in social housing, To implement Decent standards within the private rented sector, making homes warmer, safer and more accessible, and recognizing temporary accommodation, overcrowding and insecurity as a public health failure, not only a housing management problem.
It also means changing the best way success is measured. Housing policy is usually judged by supply numbers, prices or tenure outcomes. These are the words, but they’re incomplete. A healthy housing system must also assess whether people can live in homes which can be inexpensive, secure, decent, suitable and resilient to climate change.
Decreased healthy life expectancy is a warning light. It tells us that Britain isn’t only failing to maintain people well for longer, it is usually failing to offer the foundations of health.