Oral Answers to Questions

Maggie Throup Excerpts

Tuesday 19th April 2022 Commons Chamber

[Ian Lavery (Wansbeck) (Lab)]

7. What steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to tackle the effect of poor housing conditions on health outcomes.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Maggie Throup)]

The Government are committed to tackling poor-quality housing. In the social housing White Paper, we committed to a review of the decent homes standard to test whether it is up to date and reflects current needs and expectations. The levelling-up White Paper sets out a commitment to halve levels of non-decency in all rented homes by 2030, with the biggest improvements in the poorest-performing areas. These reforms will have a positive impact on health, and we will work closely with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to support their implementation.

[Ian Lavery]

The NHS spends a staggering £2.5 billion-plus annually on treating people with illnesses directly linked to living in cold, damp and dangerous conditions. As a consequence, severe respiratory diseases such as asthma, mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases are on the increase, mainly in the most deprived areas. Sadly, more and more people are dying. How does the Government’s levelling-up policy plan to tackle this increasingly urgent health issue?

[Maggie Throup]

The hon. Gentleman raises a really important issue that we are determined to tackle. Housing is one of the key determinants of health. A decent home can promote good health and protect from illness and harm. As he said, poor housing conditions have severe consequences for mental and physical health. That is why we are determined, not just through the levelling-up White Paper but through the health disparities White Paper that will be published later this year, to set out a bold ambition to reduce the gap in health outcomes and the actions that the Government will be taking to address the wider determinants of health, including the impact of poor housing on health.

[Selaine Saxby (North Devon) (Con)]

In North Devon it is not just the quality of housing that is causing health issues but the lack of availability of affordable housing and a complete collapse of the private rental sector, which is creating mental health issues among my constituents and also means that my much-loved North Devon District Hospital is struggling to recruit adequate local medical services. What steps is the Department taking to try to address these concerns?

[Maggie Throup]

My hon. Friend raises an important issue specific to her area, and other areas that attract people who go there for their holidays and are perhaps not there on a permanent basis. We are determined through our White Papers to address every health inequality, whether caused by a moving population or a static population, in the sorts of areas that the hon. Member for Wansbeck (Ian Lavery) talked about.

[Mr Toby Perkins (Chesterfield) (Lab)]

8. What recent assessment he has made of the scale of the backlog in cancer treatments in (a) Derbyshire and (b) England.

--- Later in debate ---

[Stephen Metcalfe (South Basildon and East Thurrock) (Con)]

I know from discussions with constituents that needle phobias are a real thing. Will my right hon. Friend therefore tell the House what support the Government are giving to intranasal vaccine delivery systems to ensure that the maximum number of people take up the vaccine?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Maggie Throup)]

The Department of Health and Social Care commissioned research through the National Institute for Health and Care Research, co-funded with UK Research and Innovation, for an Imperial College London study, worth £580,000, looking specifically at the safety and effectiveness of two covid-19 vaccines administered by respiratory tract. The study is ongoing, but it is in the later stages of the phase one clinical trial, and the results will be made public in due course, following peer review.

[Mr Virendra Sharma (Ealing, Southall) (Lab)]

Those providing social care often work long hours and are a real lifeline for the most vulnerable. Will the Minister act to ensure that those in social care are paid properly with a real living wage, as Citizens UK is campaigning for?