The latest Citizens Advice report Building Healthier Foundations, demonstrate that the UK’s housing crisis is also a public health crisis. It harms clients’ health through three pathways: unaffordable costs pushing people into negative budgets, hazardous housing conditions, and geographical dislocation that severs access to vital care and support networks.
Citizens Advice sees the severe impact this inflicts daily. Poor quality housing is estimated to cost the NHS £1.4 billion annually, and 1.3 million households are currently stuck on social housing waiting lists. Unaffordable rent forces those not claiming disability benefits to slash essential grocery and utility spending, while disabled clients are forced to spend 28% less on health related costs just to keep a roof over their heads.
Furthermore, a record breaking 176,000 children are now trapped in temporary accommodation (TA). When vulnerable constituents are placed in out of area TA, their clinical care is severed.
Many people in North East Hampshire are acutely impacted. We continue to see a large number of clients seeking assistance on housing issues; in 2025/26 we supported 372 clients with a total of 864 housing issues, ranging from housing affordability to unhealthy homes suffering from mould.
We are therefore asking the government to:
Short-term: Uplift the Local Housing Allowance to reflect reality of rental costs.
Medium-term: Ensure effective implementation of the Renters’ Rights Act, Awaab’s Law, and the expanded Decent Homes Standard.
Long-term: Empower councils to build genuinely affordable homes for social rent.