EUKN - United Kingdom - The effects of social housing on health and wellbeing: initial findings from the SHARP study

The effects of social housing on health and wellbeing: initial findings from the SHARP study

Introduction

The initial findings from the SHARP study, a longitudinal study of the health and well-being impacts of moving into new, general purpose, social housing provided by registered social landlords across Scotland.

Description

The findings of the research study explain that the main aim of the study was to examine the extent to which rehousing into new socially-rented dwellings delivers changes in:

housing conditions,
neighbourhood conditions,
housing management and performance and a sense of community,
as well as changes in the health and wellbeing of tenants.

The report outlines the findings of previous research on housing and health and details the main findings of the SHARP study, looking at:

housing and residential change experienced,
neighbourhood changes,
the experience of moving,
reactions to the new home,
changes in health and wellbeing.

It also highlights some areas for further investigation.

Background information

The links between poor housing and poor health are now well-established, however there are many issues such as the degree of individual and neighbourhood deprivation which complicate the assessment of independent effects of poor housing on health.

A longitudinal study was therefore undertaken which is a long-term study following individuals/households over time to determine whether improvements in health follow housing and neighbourhood improvement.

Methodology

The study compares the experiences of two groups, one of households who were rehoused into new social housing, and the other of households who live in the same locality as the newly developed social housing, but who were not themselves rehoused.

60 sites were included in the study and the methods used were: three household surveys, both face-to-face and postal, and 28 in-depth interviews.

Conclusions

Moving to new social housing is associated with improvements reported in the quality of the home, particularly in terms of dampness and warmth, and in the quality of the neighbourhood.

However, the move often resulted in problems of affordability after moving house, with the majority of tenants finding it difficult to meet the costs of telephone, fuel and council tax, and even food and rent.

There is some limited evidence that self-reported health has improved, but there was little change in mental health scores after moving home. There was a marked increase in tenants’ pride in their homes and feelings of safety in their homes.

Contact info

Communities Scotland
Phone: +44 131 313 0044
enquiries@communitiesscotland.gsi.gov.uk

Publication date

Project finished

01/12/2006

Researcher

Ade Kearns, Mark Petticrew, Caroline Hoy, Phil Mason, Catherine Ferrell (University of Glasgow)

Links

Visit the Communities Scotland website

Download the "Effects of socials housing and wellbeing" report (PDF, Eng, 253 KB)

Document type

research

Themes

Urban Policy > Housing > Housing policy

Keywords

Social housing