Select committee: Health and Social Care Committee
Recommendation 6
First Report - Prevention in health and social care: healthy places
Published 19 Jan 2024
Paragraph 26
Addressed to Department of Health and Social Care
Health and Social Care Committee Prevention in health and social care All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
An absence of hazards is not enough on its own to ensure that housing protects residents’ health. Space, design and location matter, and these should not be the preserve of those who are able to afford more expensive housing. Several standards exist to support the development of housing that is more widely protective of good health. Dwellings created under Permitted Development Rights (PDR), which comprise some of the most egregious examples of housing that is bad for health that we have seen during this inquiry, are now subject to minimum safeguards on space and light. These are welcome and much-needed but they are also an exception: adherence to any kind of quality standard is voluntary for the vast majority of developments and dwellings. Building enough homes is important, but the Government must require developers to aim higher, with quality housing and development that protects residents’ health.
From: Health and Social Care Committee, First Report - Prevention in health and social care: healthy places (HC 484), paragraph 26, 19 January 2024
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 9 May 2024 (deadline 19 March 2024).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government says it accepts some of the Committee's recommendations on healthy places but declines others, and states that it has carefully considered all of them.
- On the Decent Homes Standard, it accepts the recommendation, saying the Renters (Reform) Bill will bring the private rented sector under a standard for the first time and that it "intend[s] to publish our consultation on an updated DHS soon".
- On Awaab's Law, it accepts the recommendation. It will publish a consultation response and bring forward secondary legislation for social housing "as soon as practicable", but says the private rented sector needs "a different approach".
- It declines to consult on design and space standards, stating: "we do not believe it is necessary to consult on our design or space standards at this time."
- It declines to make OHID a statutory consultee, saying new statutory consultees would need to be "clearly justified", and that it is "not currently looking to extend the list of statutory consultees".