The cost of poor housing

Since 2010, we have published a series of reports quantifying the cost of poor housing to the NHS. More recently, we have undertaken research quantifying the enormous cost burden of poor housing to wider society.

Our latest research on the cost of poor housing shows that remedial work to England’s poorest housing could provide £135.5bn in benefits to society over the next 30 years. The Cost of Ignoring Poor Housing, published in 2023, uses a BRE-developed cost-benefit analysis to measure the broader societal benefits over the next 30 years of improving England’s poorest housing. Benefits include reduced costs to the NHS, lower energy bills and carbon emissions, higher asset values and improved economic opportunities.

Further research quantifies the cost of poor housing by tenure. 2.4 million homes failed to meet the statutory minimum standard for housing In England. Over 700,000 of these homes were identified as being excessively cold, of which half a million were owner-occupied, and that cold homes are costing the NHS £540m every year.

These two reports followed on from our earlier research published in 2021 (below) on the cost of poor housing, but used more recently published English Housing Survey (EHS) data on health and safety hazards in the home and NHS treatment cost data to estimate the cost to the NHS of England’s poorest housing.

In 2021, The Cost of Poor Housing in England quantified the cost burden to the NHS caused by hazards arising from poor quality homes in England as £1.4bn in first year treatment costs.

The reports above refer to England. There are comparable reports for Northern Ireland and Wales:

Northern Ireland: Read the report: The Cost of Poor Housing in Northern Ireland

Wales: Read the report: The Full Cost of Poor Housing in Wales

Other BRE cost of poor housing research

Europe: Read the report: The Cost of Poor Housing in the European Union

Ireland: Read the report: The Cost of Poor Housing in Ireland

The underlying methodology for calculating the cost of poor housing is available in a BRE Trust publication The Full Cost of Poor Housing (Roys M, Nicol S, Garrett H and Margoles S (2016)). This can be purchased through the BRE Bookshop.

We have also undertaken research for the Centre for Ageing Better on the cost of non-decent homes and the cost of poor housing for older people.