New Government design requirements and guidance for the Healthy Homes Standard (HHS), to be used by Homes England etc. on under the Affordable Housing Programme, is the subject of a Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) blog.
The Town and Country Planning Association writes;
In general, the Standard is something of a missed opportunity. It currently fails to recognise that our homes do not function in isolation as determinant of health – health benefits are derived from how they are planned, designed, built and maintained within the wider context of the neighbourhood and communities where they are situated.
What the Standard does do is compile existing building regulations and design guidance – some mandatory and some advisory -around five key themes: inclusivity, amenity, efficiency, comfort, and control. It also explicitly links housing design to people’s health outcomes, which is currently only implicitly addressed in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) and Building Regulations. Nine specific criteria appear to go further than current regulatory requirements. Notably, the standard applies Building Regulation Part M4(2) on accessibility for all new homes, which goes beyond current national requirements. Similarly, it requires new homes to meet Energy Performance Certificate A and undertake a Whole Life Carbon Assessment (WLCA).
Since 2019, the Campaign for Healthy Homes has advocated for a more comprehensive and proactive approach to built environment standards, an approach which aims to positively promote residents’ health. The campaign outlines 12 Healthy Homes Principles, each of which seek better health outcomes from new housing developments. To read a table examining the overlap and gaps between the TCPA’s Healthy Homes Principles and Homes England’s Healthy Homes Standard (HHS) go to the link below.
Based on this initial review, there are some key opportunities to strengthen the HHS, in particular:
- Access to amenities, nature and sustainable travel: schemes built to Healthy Homes Standards need to connect people to social infrastructure, prioritising wellbeing by linking homes to:? i. Essential services, such as the GP and schools; ii. Neighbourhood amenities, including nature, shops, sports and recreation, safe doorstep play and outdoor play spaces; iii. Inclusive active travel and sustainable public transport options.
- Climate resilience: Healthy Homes will need to be built to be future-proofed to be resilient to increasing risk and uncertainty of extreme weather events associated with climate change, including storms, heatwaves and flooding.
- Healthy local environment: Healthy Homes need to contribute to ensuring people are living in a healthy local environment – including: i. Outdoor air quality – through minimising exposure and mitigating features such as natural hedgerow buffers; ii. Limiting exposure to noise pollution and artificial light pollution – balancing the need for safety (via lighting) while avoiding sensory overload; iii. Clean and efficient water supply and sanitation – linked to both energy efficiency and climate resilience, efficient and clean water use, including rainwater harvest systems and biodiverse Sustainable (urban) Drainage Systems (SuDS) need to be built-in to schemes.
Importantly, unlike other industry standards, such as Building with Nature and BREEAM New Construction Residential v6.1, the HHS says very little about process. Such as how the plans and design of a site is informed by local health and housing needs. Or – importantly – how community engagement and co-production will be integrated into the design and delivery of new housing schemes. Criteria ‘a.4 — Designing for diverse cultural requirements’ touches on this, but the standard makes no reference to mechanisms that will support resident involvement and accountability. This will help ensure schemes are being delivered as outlined and in helping to build-in opportunities for learning, refinement and long-term stewardship.
Overall, the Healthy Homes Standard can be described as a consolidating framework for Homes England and its partners. It pulls together existing regulations and some guidance under a single standard, with a limited number that go above current mandatory requirements. However, when reviewed alongside the Healthy Homes Principles, and indeed other standards, the HHS misses some crucial opportunities that would positively promote people’s health in new housing schemes. The TCPA welcomes this standard as a move in the right direction, but without enforceable health-based standards, the HHS cannot yet be considered a transformative approach to designing the healthy homes and neighbourhoods of the future.
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