A toolkit for environmental health practitioners
It is well recognised that good quality homes are important for the health and well-being of those living in them. To try and improve the overall quality of the UK housing stock the Government has established a ‘Decent Homes’ standard. Under the standard a Decent Home is one which is warm, weatherproof and which has reasonably modern facilities. Such homes are a key element in developing thriving, sustainable communities where crime is reduced and where employment and educational opportunities are improved.
Environmental health practitioners play a key role in promoting Decent Homes in the private sector. To assist its members and local housing managers in achieving a better understanding of the links between housing and health, the CIEH commissioned the Building Research Establishment (BRE) Housing Centre to produce a toolkit. The aim of the toolkit is to show how links between homes and health can be made, including where possible, the cost benefit of some specifically linked housing and health issues. Providing evidence of cost benefit is important where resources for improvement or enforcement are lacking.
The toolkit provides a method of measuring and showing the value of private sector housing intervention to health, society and quality of life. It enables users to find a baseline and work out the most effective and cost efficient methods of improving homes.
HHSRS Cost Calculator
One of the tools available is a cost calculator (excel doc.) based on the Housing Health and Safety Rating System (HHSRS.) The calculator is intended to help demonstrate the value of an intervention by producing a baseline of likely numbers of incidences within local authority areas, together with the health costs and costs of mitigating the hazard. This figure can be used as evidence of the cost and subsequently compared to the costs of improvement works.
Documents
Good Housing Leads to Good Health. A Toolkit for Environmental Health Practitioners (PDF)
