The cost of ignoring poor housing

This research shows that the cost of ignoring poor housing in England will amount to over £135bn over the next 30 years if no investment is made to improve homes with the most serious health and safety hazards.

BRE’s report values the cost to society of ignoring England’s poor housing at £135.5bn over the next 30 years. Building on research from 2021, BRE has developed a cost-benefit model for evaluating the impact of housing interventions that tackle the poorest homes. It shows that remedial work would result in savings to the NHS, lower energy bills and carbon emissions, higher asset values and improved economic opportunities.

Key findings

2.4 million homes in England fall below the minimum standard for housing, having at least one of the most serious (Category 1) health and safety hazards.
Remedial work on those homes would cost £9bn, but, if it were undertaken immediately, it would have the potential to save £135.5bn over the next 30 years.
The cost of remedial work would be paid back by savings to NHS costs alone in under nine years. 65,000 homes in England have a Category 1 damp and mould hazard.
Remedial works to make these homes healthy and safe would cost around £250m.
The benefit to society of undertaking this work immediately is estimated to be around £4.8bn, accrued over the next 30 years in today’s prices.

The analysis shows that investing in the health and safety of England’s poor housing will deliver significant long-term benefits to the economy and to society.

Improving poor housing is known to have even wider benefits than those estimated in the report such as housing satisfaction, wellbeing and happiness, as well as social capital and improved environmental quality.

This is the first time that the longer-term costs and benefits of removing the worst health and safety hazards from England’s housing has been quantified. It demonstrates that it is possible to produce a cost-benefit model for evaluating the impact of housing interventions tackling the poorest homes, which can be used to calculate ‘what-if scenarios’ for interventions to remove or reduce poor housing over various time periods.