Join us for a one-day policy conference on 26 February, 9.30am-5.30pm at the British Academy for our policy event on how housing can influence health, wealth equality and carbon emissions.
This conference aims to bring together policymakers, industry experts, housing professionals, civil society organisations and academics to explore the interconnections between housing, incomes and household behaviours and the impact on health, wealth inequality, and climate change.
The government has an ambition to make housing more affordable and decent by aiming to build 1.5m new homes, investing in a Warm Homes Plan, improving stability and security in private rental sector, and maintaining social housing stock. Housing is central to the government’s growth mission. Land supply, planning reforms and more public and private investment are vital, with investment needed in areas with major housing-affordability issues and long waiting lists. But the housing crisis, combined with asset price and rental inflation over the years, is generating much wider and deeper economic and social ramifications for young people, families and communities.
Housing, health and wealth should not be seen as separate aspects of a good life. In the growing debate about the feasibility of meeting the house building target and turning around economic inequality, limited policy attention has been paid to the pivotal role of how housing itself sits at the centre of a range of opportunities and disparities.
Given the critical importance of addressing overlapping societal challenges, what is the growing evidence on housing and its wider welfare effects in human terms? How is the housing crisis harming public health according to new research? Which households and residents are responsible for disproportionately high levels of carbon emissions, and given the exceedingly poor sustainability of old housing stock, what action is needed? How can housing policy, new developments and regulation be combined with other policies to tackle affordability and generate better societal outcomes? Are there key trade-offs?
The event will cover a number of themes:
- Housing, affordability and growing inequality in wealth
- Housing and health, with a focus on mental health
- House prices, lifestyles and carbon emissions
Understanding Society will also be launching Insights 2025 Report at the event, with the latest findings on housing-related issues based on the Study’s long-term data.
Registration is free but you must register in advance here via Eventbrite