First published in 2010. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

This publication demonstrates the continuing health and societal impacts of poor housing in Wales. Proportionately, there is considerably more poor housing in Wales than in England, with dangerous stairs and steps, and cold and damp homes being key problems. It is estimated that works targeted on reducing the worst hazards would have a benefit to the National Health Service of some 67 million per year. This figure doubles if the definition of poor housing is widened to include all homes with a SAP (energy efficiency rating) of 40 or less and basic heating and insulation improvements are...

This report summarizes the results of a research project commissioned by the Northern Ireland Housing Executive and BRE Trust to apply a methodology developed to calculate the cost of poor housing in England and Wales to the housing of Northern Ireland. This research shows that there is proportionately less poor housing in Northern Ireland than in England or Wales, largely due to the fact that Northern Ireland has the most modern housing stock of the UK nations. However, there is still an unacceptably high (and previously unreported) proportion of health and safety hazards in the housing of...

More than 350,000 injuries and 550 deaths in the UK every year are caused by falls on domestic stairs and steps. Reducing the risks associated with the most hazardous stairs is relatively inexpensive, with a typical payback period of six years (based on savings for the health services).

This report considers the aspects of poor stair design that can be repaired or replaced in order to mitigate most of this risk. These include: handrail design, lighting, guarding, step covering, access and landings, step dimensions, step inconsistencies and non-straight stairs.

A stair...

This report summarises the methodology and results of a research project commissioned by BRE Trust to quantify how much the improvements to social housing arising from the Decent Homes programme (2001-2010) have reduced costs to the NHS in treating housing-related injuries and illnesses. It uses the same basic methodology developed to calculate the costs of poor housing in England described in The real cost of poor housing (Roys et al 2010). The report also discusses:
- additional costs to society of non-decent homes
- the impact of less serious, but still significant, levels of...

In 2014 a 'Bletchley Day' workshop was organised by Care & Repair England. BRE was tasked with considering ways to demonstrate the investment value of home adaptations and modifications through the production of better evidence.

BRE researched some of the cost-benefit to the NHS of undertaking preventative home interventions for households with a long-term sickness or disability, where the risks of accidents in their home are worse than the national average.

This research has identified the need for preventative work in around 3 million households who have a long-term...

There is a long-established, recognised relationship between poor housing and poor health. This report presents the findings from a joint BRE Trust DCLG project to update and improve estimates of the cost to the NHS of living in poor housing. It builds on data originally published in The real cost of poor housing in 2010, which have been revised to reflect new knowledge and information that has since become available. It is estimated (using revised NHS information) that leaving vulnerable people living in the poorest 15% of England s housing is costing the NHS some 1.4 billion per annum in...