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Health & wellbeing

The condition and design of general housing has an important impact on the health of individuals and communities.

The resources listed below include research, policy and practice into the links between housing and health and ways to promote health through housing.

Building for a Healthy Life: Rochester Riverside - a Housing Design Award-winning development

This Housing LIN Case Study (No 159) captures the key design characteristics that establish a route to healthy, sustainable, and enjoyable home for all ages. It features this year's winning entry from the Housing Design Award's first-ever Building for a Healthy Life category.

Loneliness Annual Report: The first year

This Annual Report by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport provides an update on the progress made against each of the commitments set out in ‘A connected society: a strategy for tackling loneliness’

Reaching Out: Guide to helping principal and local councils tackle loneliness

This guide from the LGA outlines the current loneliness policy context, uses a range of case studies to demonstrate effective local delivery models working in practice, including the use of technology, and provides useful check lists and top tips on how to measure and evaluate outputs.

Healthier and Happier - An analysis of the fiscal and wellbeing benefits of building more homes for later living

This report explores the wellbeing benefits of living in properties for later living and the significant fiscal savings they can deliver to the NHS and social care system.

Why housing matters to health and care

This briefing by the Welsh NHS Confederation and Cymorth Housing Cymru provides an overview of the benefits of housing working with health and care and showcases examples where housing and health work collaboratively.

The health and social care cost benefits of housing for older people

This Housing LIN report for Mears outlines the evidence for the health and social care benefits, and specifically cost-benefits, of housing for older people, particularly extra care housing.

Integrated Homes, Care And Support: Measurable Outcomes for Healthy Ageing

A new report from ExtraCare Charitable Trust shows older people benefit from improved physical and mental health in retirement communities, resulting in cost savings to the NHS.

Who wants to be lonely? How housing with care schemes are well placed to reduce unwanted isolation.

In order to tackle loneliness we need to have meaningful interactions. For interaction to be meaningful and truly deepen connections, it's vital to look at spaces and places.

Housing and health: new evidence using biomarker data

The link between housing and health is well established and long-standing, however much of the evidence relies on self-reported health measures. While these are useful, the availability of biomarker data allows us to add to this evidence using objective indicators of health.

Would you choose a home that increases your life expectancy?

Could the way we design and build our villages, towns and cities be encouraging illness?

Addressing Loneliness and Social Isolation in Older People

This new guide from EROSH seeks to demonstrate the role sheltered and retirement housing organisations play in preventing and addressing loneliness and social isolation.

Left out: Why many LGBTQ+ people aren’t accessing their right to housing in the UK

This World Habitat explores the housing issues faced by LGBTQ+ individuals which go relatively unnoticed by the housing sector.

Derby City’s Healthy Housing Hub - preventing hospital admissions and more...

This Case Study (no 147) from the Housing LIN comes from Derby City Council's Safia Iqbal who explains how the CC are linking health and housing related services across the city to reduce the negative impacts of poor housing on health.

Healthy Homes: Accommodating an Ageing Population

This report from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers gives an expert insight into accommodating for an ageing population through research analysis and recommendations.

Social Isolation in London

This report, prepared for Octavia by Ipsos Mori, presents findings from research on loneliness carried out on nearly 500 adults aged 15 and over in the Greater London area.

Homes and wellbeing: Breaking down the stereotypes

This interim report explores the relationship between social housing and wellbeing from customers across VIVID’s housing stock located throughout Hampshire.

The role of home adaptations in improving later life

The findings from this Centre for Ageing Better and UWE report identify that small changes to homes can improve quality of life and relieve pressure on NHS and social care

Room to improve. The role of home adaptation in improving later life

This systematic review of the best recent scientific evidence on how home adaptations can contribute to improving later lives is the second of two new resources from the Centre for Ageing Better and the University of West of England.

The Golden Generation? Wellbeing and inequalities in later life

This report by Manchester Institute for Collaborative Research on Ageing (MICRA) examines the impact that work, retirement, social activity, volunteering and health all have on the wellbeing of older people

Better planning for car ownership and well-being in old age

This Housing LIN Briefing seeks to connect the body of knowledge around the significance of car ownership in achieving well-being for older people to those making particular decisions that may impact...

Home Fire Safety: Risk Referral Matrix

Designed by the London Fire Brigade, this extremely useful matrix is intended for everyone involved in the care and protection of vulnerable people. It is a guide to reducing the risk of death or injury...

Safe, warm, decent housing for older people - why it really matters

Following the government's response to Lord Filkin's 'Ready for Ageing?' report, the national network of Older People's Housing Champions has been developing a manifesto to take to the political parties...

Effective Strategies and Interventions - Environmental health and the private housing sector

This publication, authored by Dr Jill Stewart at the University of Greenwich, draws together a range of methods and good practice in adding to the environmental health and housing evidence base. It showcases...

Building Positive Futures in Thurrock

This Housing LIN Case Study no 72 on creating the homes and neighbourhoods that support independence in Thurrock showcases the strength-based work of 'Building Positive Futures' and how the local council...

Derby Healthy Housing Service

This Homes Initiative in Derby enables people to enjoy a better home environment, enhanced quality of life, improved health and general well-being when they are warm, safe and secure in their own home....

Get with the programme? - A look at health and wellbeing boards through the lens of telehealth and telecare.

This Housing LIN Viewpoint no 34 assesses the progress of health and wellbeing boards in making headway with the adoption of telecare and telehealth, and what this tells us about their readiness to live...

On the Pulse: How housing is critical to better health and social care for older people

This report from the National Housing Federation, supported by the Housing LIN, highlights the critical role which housing providers play in improving health and social care outcomes for older people....

A foot in the door: a guide to engaging housing and health

This new toolkit from the Northern Housing Consortium, a guide to engaging housing and health, demystifies the organisational structures and assurance processes of health and care and sets out six clear...

Getting to grips with integration: making housing count

Hot on the heels of the CIH report " Localism: delivering integration across housing, health and care ", the Housing LIN has produced a comprehensive Information Pack that drills down into the key components...

Localism: delivering integration across housing, health and care

This report from the CIH, and supported by the Housing LIN, makes a number of recommendations for government, local authorities, housing providers, health and social care agencies that are essential...

Housing for health: worlds aligned - A tool for local influencing

This report from the National Housing Federation provides anyone involved in housing with useful tools they need to engage with and influence the health sector, as a new health landscape emerges. By...

Action on sheltered and retirement housing

This revised leaflet from EROSH provides a useful checklist to encourage joint working between adult social care staff and those involved in sheltered/retirement housing address the personalisation and...

Health and housing: worlds apart? - Housing care and support solutions to health challenges

Through this report, the National Housing Federation (NHF) seeks to inspire organisations, individuals, commissioners and government departments to look beyond traditional sector boundaries and to collaborate...

Fair Society, Healthy Lives - The Marmot Review

Sir Michael Marmots review of public health - A report published in 2010 with recommendations on how to reduce health inequalities in England.

Housing & Health uncovered

A detailed study by the Shepherds Bush Housing Association on the impact of housing and the local environment on health, before and after housing improvement, and followed up over a length of time and...

Good housing and good health?

A report published jointly by the Housing Corporation and Housing LIN that brings together evidence on the links between housing and health. It makes recommendations for future studies and suggests how...

Sustaining Health through Housing

This report by Common Cause Consulting, funded by the Housing Corporation, demonstrates the role housing, and housing associations in particular, can play in promoting healthy and sustainable neighbourhoods....

If you are interested in issues of social wellbeing and social inclusion among older people then you can find relevant resources on the Older people - Health and Wellbeing page. The role of Extra Care housing in health and wellbeing is explored in the Extra Care - health & wellbeing page.