The cost of poor housing by tenure

BRE’s report The Cost of Poor Housing by Tenure identifies that, for owner-occupied and privately rented homes in England, excessive cold is the largest poor-housing-related cost burden to the NHS.

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

Key findings

This report analyses the cost of poor housing in England by tenure. It finds that:

For owner occupiers, over half a million homes (3.3%) are excessively cold (a Category 1 excessive cold hazard is roughly equivalent to an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) energy efficiency rating band of F or G).
In the private rented sector, nearly 180,000 homes (3.8%) are excessively cold.
In the social housing sector, 23,000 homes (0.6%) are excessively cold.
The average cost to improve homes so they are no longer excessively cold (ie, to raise them above an EPC rating band of F) is £6,690 and £6,835 for homeowners and private landlords respectively.
If private landlords adhered strictly to the Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards Band E price cap of £3,500, between 30% to 40% of these excessively cold homes could be remedied.
The risks of falls associated with stairs continues to be the most common cause of poorer housing. Around one million (4%) homes in England across all tenures have a Category 1 falls associated with stairs hazard.
Falls hazards are often relatively inexpensive to prevent, typically costing under £500. Mitigating falls would therefore provide a relatively quick return for the NHS across all tenures.

This tenure-based research uses the same methodology developed for our previous research on the cost burden to the NHS of the poorest quality homes. The findings for this report use 2018 and 2019 combined year (reference date 2019) English Housing Survey data and the NHS treatment costs used in our previous research inflated to 2019 prices.

‘Poor housing’ is defined as ‘a dwelling that fails to meet the statutory minimum standard of housing in England’ - that is, a dwelling that contains one or more Category 1 hazards under the Housing Health and Safety Rating System.