Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate his Department has made of the cost to the NHS of (a) cold and energy inefficient homes and (b) unhealthy housing.

In a 2016 report, the Building Research Establishment (BRE) estimated that the cost to the National Health Service of excess cold in the poorest 15% of housing stock in England is approximately £848 million per year. It estimated that investment to improve the thermal performance of these homes would cost £6 billion. They also estimated that poor housing in England generated first year NHS treatment costs of £1.4 billion annually. The wider cost to society (including medical costs, lost education and employment opportunities) of poor housing was £18.6 billion.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is leading a project looking at the health impacts of living in cold homes.

The Fuel Poverty Strategy for England includes a vulnerability principle and Government has consulted on updating this principle so that it focuses specifically on households that are most at risk to the impact of living in a cold home. This intends to ensure that energy efficiency schemes can support those in the greatest need.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence has issued guidance which covers reducing the health risks, including preventable deaths, associated with living in a cold home, available to view at the following link:

https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/ng6

Public Health England has produced online training for frontline health and social care practitioners to help them direct people living in a cold home that may be affecting their health to local sources of assistance, available at the following link:

https://www.e-lfh.org.uk/programmes/cold-homes/