06 Jun 2022
Senior policy and practice officer Sarah Davis explains CIH’s continued commitment to the TCPA’s Healthy Homes Bill and campaign
The vital place of our homes in ensuring our safety, health and wellbeing has been in the spotlight a lot recently. In addition to experiences throughout the pandemic, a number of government actions have also highlighted this over the past few months:
However, in terms of driving a greater, proactive focus improving health through the home, there are still some notable hindrances:
Above all what is missing is a more comprehensive attempt to bring together lots of disparate frameworks into one that enables local authorities and communities to focus on planning places that underpin health and wellbeing across all tenures. That is why the TCPA’s ongoing campaign, and Lord Crisp’s Healthy homes private member’s bill remain so important.
The bill will enshrine the principles defining healthy homes which will pull together aspects of safety (including fire safety) with accessibility and measures to address sustainability and tackle pollutants that impact health. The Secretary of state will have a duty to secure people’s health, safety, wellbeing and convenience in buildings; it will introduce a Healthy Homes Commissioner to promote and secure the implementation of the principles, and require local authorities to plan for affordable housing needs.
In doing so, the bill proposes measures that address new housing development that CIH has long called for – not only in numbers but in quality, being affordable and accessible, and that supports the health and wellbeing of local people and communities – and does so by introducing a broad overarching framework under which the other measures on safety, health and care can sit. That is why CIH supports the Healthy Homes campaign.