Wider determinants of health JSNA

Housing impact

According to the 2014 strategic housing market assessment, just under 11 per cent of Rochdale borough residents were dissatisfied with the state of their homes.

Why is housing important to health?

The right home environment is crucial to health and wellbeing so housing is considered to be one of the wider determinants of health. Unhealthy, unsuitable or unstable housing presents a risk to a person's physical and mental health.

Conversely, the right home environment protects and improves health and wellbeing and prevents physical and mental ill health (Public Health England, 2017).

Groups at risk of poor health due to their home environment

While some people take having the right home environment for granted, it's actually a complex process involving people, communities and organisations working together to produce the ideal environment for promoting good health and wellbeing through the home.

Those at particular risk include:

  • Children and their families
  • People with long-term conditions
  • People with mental health issues
  • People with learning disabilities
  • People recovering from ill health
  • Older people
  • People who spend a lot of time at home such as carers
  • Low income households
  • People who experience a number of inequalities, also called inclusion health groups

Information we have to consider includes the tenure of the home, the quality and standard of the home, the suitability of the home, the stability of the home and the main health risks and wider impacts.

Statistics on housing

Guidance on housing