Social housing - a prescription for better health and wellbeing

In the lead up to the next general election, Shelter will be publishing a series of briefings examining the impact of the housing emergency on different policy areas – health, education, domestic abuse, climate change and economic growth.

Home is the foundation to everything. It is impossible to get a good education, maintain good health, keep a stable job or for communities to thrive without the foundation of an affordable, safe, secure place to call home. But today we have a broken housing system. Homelessness is at an all-time high, with 140,000 homeless children living in temporary accommodation, and there are almost 1.3 million households waiting for a permanent housing solution- a social rent home with rents tied to local incomes.

In the first briefing of the series we explore the link between housing and health. How homelessness kills. How half of private renters are worried about paying the rent. And how poor housing conditions cost the NHS £1.4 billion a year.