The Quality of Life Foundation has launched a framework that hopes to address the changes that the development industry can make to ensure that homes are created to provide a better quality of life for everyone.
In partnership with design and research consultancy URBED the framework has been written and published following research, discussions and engagement with communities, politicians and wider industry stakeholders in the past year.
The foundation highlights that more than 170,000 homes were developed in 2019 but many were built without consideration of people's long-term quality of life. This results in developments that are:
It says an estimated 10 million people are living in 4.3 million poor-quality homes, resulting in poor health and a reduced quality of life. The foundation quoted The Centre for Ageing Better's 2020 Home and Dry Report on the need for decent homes in later life, with the cost of non-decent homes in England costing the NHS around £1.4 billion a year. The COVID-19 pandemic and lockdowns have highlighted this issue, such as living and working in cramped accommodation, with little or no access to outdoor space.
The foundation says the framework brings together six themes and is built around a series of case studies. The themes include:
It sets out practical steps on how communities, developers, designers and local authorities can create better places for people to live through putting greater emphasis on health and well-being.
Professor Sadie Morgan OBE, founding director of the Quality of Life Foundation, said: "This framework comes at a pivotal moment for the industry and the UK as a whole. Covid-19 has brought the need for good-quality housing into sharp focus and has demonstrated the importance of building resilient communities".
"Paired with the upcoming planning reforms, it is imperative that there is a fundamental reassessment of how we think about the built environment and its relationship with our overall health and wellbeing. As a society, we should be coming together to ensure that no one has poor health just because of the house they live in. This framework sets the precedent for future schemes by exploring just how we can do that".
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