Mitie, in partnership with publication Inside Housing, recently commissioned a survey which looks at the link between health and housing. The survey explores ways in which social landlords and repairs contractors can work together across both service areas to deliver a better, more personalised service to tenants.
How can social landlords better improve the link between the health service and housing? What strategies are the sector implementing? Are social landlords responding quickly when tenants say their homes are making them sick? These are just some of the questions explored in Mitie’s Health and Housing survey.
The survey collected 174 responses from a range of stakeholders, including housing associations, local authorities and management organisations. The purpose of the survey was to explore the sector’s attitude towards health and housing, as well as to learn more about some of the work and initiatives social landlords are undertaking in this area.
Key findings from the Health and Housing survey include:
- Resident health and wellbeing is an integral part of property management, according to 58 % of respondents
- The most popular action social landlords are taking to improve tenant health and wellbeing is through improving the accessibility of their homes. Other popular measures were improving thermal efficiency, security and community health and wellbeing programmes.
- The majority of respondents (66 %) believe that the repairs and maintenance provider has a role to play in delivery health and wellbeing programmes, with 8% saying that the provider should be fully responsible for delivering these programmes.
- Better partnership working, improved transparency, more and better quality housing, and healthcare MOTs and GP surgeries were among the top suggestions for improving the link between health and housing.
Anna Benbow, Head of Asset Management for Mitie Property Services said:
“These results are very interesting and follow the way I think the sector is going, understanding that as a social landlord you have an increasing responsibility to help tenants live in that home. “If they’re living there and [the property’s] causing them issues, that is a problem that we as a sector need to respond to.”
“We are dealing with significantly ageing accommodation and as it’s very difficult to refurbish homes to accessible standards. We need innovative ways to support tenants without turning their home upside-down. We have tried to demonstrate this approach through a variety of schemes, including our award winning health MOT roadshow."
The full summary of the Health and Housing survey results can be read here.
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Click here to accessour latest Mitie imagery…For further information, contact:
Lauren Hepburn, Investor and Public Relations Manager, Mitie Group plc
T:+44 20 3123 8720 E:lauren.hepburn@mitie.com
John Telling, Corporate Affairs Director, Mitie Group plc
T:+44 20 3123 8673 E: john.telling@mitie.com
