Councils urged to lead housing improvements
Dr Stephen Battersby, an environmental health and housing consultant (retired), has written to The Guardian arguing that local authorities should take the lead on collective action to improve housing, drawing lessons from the 1970s. He responds to the editorial 'The Guardian view on Britain’s uninhabitable homes: as temperatures rise, a new approach is needed' (23 July), which highlighted the threat to trust that homes are safe.
Threats to health and safety in homes
Battersby notes that environmental health officers daily face homes with threats such as excess heat, cold, damp, and mould. He points to years of insufficient resources, including a lack of environmental health staff to inspect homes, and a lack of political will to tackle problems at the required scale.
Learning from the 1970s
He suggests that a new approach is needed, but that the UK can learn from the 1970s when local authorities led collective action to improve housing. Councils should be the focus for progress, but this requires funding—not only for homeowners but also to ensure councils have sufficient skilled staff.
Historical funding and austerity cuts
After the 1981 English House Condition Survey revealed high disrepair rates, the government introduced generous repair grants and contributed £1bn through subsidies. However, funding for the private sector housing renewal programme was reduced to £376m in 2009-10 and later discontinued due to austerity. Battersby suggests Andy Burnham and Angela Rayner should revisit past policies to learn what can be done.
