THE JECH GALLERY

Better homes, better neighbourhoods

Hilary Thomson¹, Mark Petticrew¹ and David Morrison²

¹ MRC Social & Public Health Sciences Unit, Glasgow, UK
² Public Health, NHS Greater Glasgow, Glasgow, UK

Correspondence to:
Correspondence to:
H Thomson
MRC Social and Public Health Sciences Unit, 4 Lilybank Gardens, Glasgow, UK; hilary{at}msoc.mrc.gla.ac.uk

Interventions to improve housing are often part of broader area-regeneration activities. A programme of housing-led regeneration in a post-industrial village in West Dunbartonshire, at the foot of Loch Lomond in Scotland, involved housing association tenants moving from ex-council flats reported to have damp problems (fig 1), to newly built houses with private gardens (fig 2). Not only was the fabric of the new houses better, but also the neighbourhood regeneration involved general environmental improvements. These included aesthetic improvements, provision of children’s play areas and better street design. Levels of housing density were reduced by housing people in houses rather than in flats, and although the flats were not overcrowded, there was a small but statistically significant reduction in house occupancy (persons per room) when residents moved to their new house. A paper in this issue of JECH reports the findings of a prospective controlled study that evaluated the effects on health 1 year after residents moved to a new house: no marked health effects were reported.¹

View larger version (124K): in this window | in a new window | PowerPoint for Teaching   Figure 1  Ex-council flats with reported damp problems.

 

View larger version (132K): in this window | in a new window | PowerPoint for Teaching   Figure 2  Newly built houses with private gardens and wider environmental improvements.

 

The potential for positive health effects is often used as a rationale for public investment in neighbourhood regeneration.^2,3 However, positive health effects should not be assumed to be the inevitable result of housing improvement.⁴ The results from our study raise questions about the complexity of the intervention and about the diverse mechanisms through which housing improvement may affect health.¹

1. Thomson H, Petticrew M. The health impacts of housing-led regeneration: a prospective controlled study. J Epidemiol Comm Health 2007;61:211–4.[Abstract/Free Full Text]
2. Social Exclusion Unit. A new commitment to neighbourhood renewal: national strategy action plan. HMSO, London: Cabinet Office, 2001.
3. HM Treasury & Department of Health Tackling health inequalities: summary of the 2002 cross cutting spending review. London 2002.
4. Thomson H, Petticrew M, Morrison D. Health effects of housing improvement: systematic review of intervention studies. BMJ 2001;323:187–90.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

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Relevant Article

In this issue

Carlos Alvarez-Dardet and John R Ashton
J Epidemiol Community Health 2007 61: 177. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

This article has been cited by other articles:

• Thomson, H., Morrison, D., Petticrew, M. (2007). The health impacts of housing-led regeneration: a prospective controlled study. J. Epidemiol. Community Health 61: 211-214 [Abstract] [Full Text]