Living standards· Housing Trying times How people living in poor quality housing have fared during the cost of living crisis 15 April 2023 Lalitha Try Plenty of research has shown the important role housing plays on our living standards, attitudes and wider health and wellbeing. But less attention has been paid to the effect of housing quality on living standards. In this report, we use data collected in March 2023 from an online YouGov survey (funded by The Health Foundation) of 10,122 adults aged 18+, to analyse the experience of the cost of living crisis by tenure, the incidence of poor quality housing, and the impact of poor quality housing on health and wellbeing. According to our survey, 10 per cent of people live in poor quality housing (defined as living in homes that are not in a good state of repair, where heating, electrics or plumbing are not in good working order, and where damp is present), with people from more disadvantaged groups more likely to live in poor quality housing. And poor quality housing is also associated with poor health, which is still true after controlling for a range of income-related and demographic factors.
