Poor housing costs the NHS in Wales around £67m a year, according to new research published today (Wednesday 13 April).
‘The Cost of Poor Housing in Wales’, jointly funded by Shelter Cymru and the Building Research Establishment (BRE) Trust, calculates the costs to the NHS of treating accidents and illnesses caused by problems in the home such as unsafe steps, electrical hazards, excessive cold, damp and mould.
The total cost to society, which includes factors such as children’s poor educational attainment and reduced life chances is much greater and estimated at around £168m a year.
“The links between bad housing and physical and mental ill-health are generally accepted, but this is the first time that we have been able to put a definitive financial cost on it,” said John Puzey, director of Shelter Cymru.
“Decent homes are the foundation of people’s lives and, as such, hugely important to their health and well-being. Now this report makes it clear that the economic case for improving bad housing in Wales is as strong as the moral case.
“Historically, the political relationship between public health and decent housing was much closer, as we can see in the significant legislative changes and investment of the late 19th and early 20th century and, of course, in Aneurin Bevan’s post-war Ministry of Health and Housing.
“A new Assembly is just weeks away, and it will be an Assembly that will not have to go through the time consuming LCO process every time it wishes to make a major decision.
“Perhaps now is the time for a dramatic change in how we view housing as a political priority and ask whether relocating housing within health – the single biggest spending department in the Welsh Assembly Government – could be a way of securing that change.”
The study shows that the total cost of bringing all poor housing in Wales to an acceptable condition would be around £1.5bn, with approximately half of this associated with addressing cold homes and a further quarter linked to reducing fall hazards.
The payback time to the NHS if all this work were carried out would be 22 years, however some areas could be paid back in much less time. Investment in addressing dangerous stairs for example would be paid back in 5.7 years.
Around 20 per cent of homes with the most serious health hazards could be made acceptable for lesS than £520, and half for less than £1,600.
