Improving the housing stock in Anglesey and Gwynedd
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Improving the Housing Stock in Anglesey and Gwynedd: A Health Economics Approach
IRAS ID
173464
Contact name
Eira Winrow
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 11 months, 30 days
Research summary
It is estimated that at least £600 million is spent by the NHS every year to treat illnesses that are directly attributable to poor housing, yet a report by the Charted Institute of Environmental Health suggests that on average it would cost just £4993 to address excess cold issues per household, one of the main causes of Excess Winter Deaths of 40’000 above the average death rate from December to March every year (Houses of Parliament, 2011).
The aim of this PhD is to:
• Review the Health Economics literature which evidences the cost-effectiveness of preventing ill-health through home improvement
• Evaluate the cost impact of a suite of home improvements
• Evaluate the effect on health of these home improvements
• Consider the effects on health of household expenditure trade-offs following home improvements (for example, the ‘heat or eat’ trade-off)
The field work for this research will take place across Anglesey and Gwynedd, two counties of North Wales with low levels of housing stock and whose councils operate in different ways. Anglesey retains its stock of social housing, and maintains its properties through a rolling programme of improvement works while Gwynedd transferred all of its stock to a social landlord, and now sees many of its social housing tenants in the private rented sector. The project will be reinforced by drawing on the expertise within the Centre for Health Economics and Medicines Evaluation (Bangor University), Betsi Cadwalader University Health Board (Respiratory Medicine), Public Health Wales, and the housing departments within Anglesey and Gwynedd Councils. This project also builds on the CHARISMA study previously undertaken in Wrexham with CHEME responsible for the Health Economics analysis assessing a trial of housing improvement in homes of children with moderate to severe asthma.REC name
Wales REC 5
REC reference
15/WA/0254
Date of REC Opinion
17 Jul 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion