WWL5.1
Improved Housing
Where we live
- Home
Improved Housing
Housing refers to the provision of shelter or accommodation for individuals or families. It encompasses a wide range of structures, from single-family homes to apartments, condominiums, and other forms of residential buildings.
Housing is crucial for meeting basic human needs, promoting health and well-being, fostering community stability, supporting educational and economic opportunities, and enhancing overall quality of life.
The types of benefit that can be realised if housing is improved include:
- Direct health benefits to the health sector, occupants and visitors
- Reduction in cost to the emergency services, following a home health incident
- Wellbeing and mental health benefits
- A reduction in direct care, aftercare and assistance
- Improved education and productivity
- Increased asset value of property
- Improved rental income of property
- Saved costs of future retrofitting
- Savings in energy and carbon emissions
- Reduction in cost of future interventions, including those of charities
- Increased social capital
- Local job opportunities and tax revenues
Key Value
A fiscal value of £2,900
This is the value per hazard improved per home to society and the NHS
£2,373 is the average benefit of mitigating Category 1 hazards (savings to NHS and savings to society).
Where does this headline value come from?
Building Research Establishment Limited (BRE) reported the cost of poor housing in England in 2021. The table in page 6 presents total savings to the NHS and total savings to society. BRE explains that savings to the NHS are calculated by applying the NHS first year treatment costs for each category 1 hazard through the BRE COPH algorithm (described in The Full Cost of Poor Housing). BRE explains that the savings to society are calculated using a tried-and-tested formula, such as the one developed by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) which evaluates the costs of both fatal and non-fatal injuries (also in the The Full Cost of Poor Housing).
The table on page 6 of this report presents the number of category 1 hazards, and total savings to the NHS and total savings to society. Therefore total savings can be divided by the number of category 1 hazards to obtain the savings per hazard.
We have then taken the average of these savings to obtain the value £2,373, rounded to £2,400.
Inflation adjusted value is £2864 which is rounded to £2900 in 2023 prices.
Local Needs Analysis Data Source
Before using this MeasureUp value, we encourage you to assess the local need in relation to the activity or outcome.
Here is the most useful initial data source for assessing local need in relation to this value.
To assess local needs related to the value WWL5.1 ‘Improved housing’, you can draw on housing quality and availability indicators from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. Key measures include:
Number of affordable homes per 1,000 existing stock – Shows the relative supply of affordable housing, available annually at local authority and country level.
% of dwellings with an A–C Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating – Indicates energy efficiency and housing quality, updated quarterly at the local authority and regional level.
Net additions to the housing stock – Tracks new housing supply and expansion of available homes, reported annually at local authority and country level.
Together, these indicators provide a comprehensive view of housing affordability, quality, and supply at the local level—key factors for addressing housing needs and supporting community wellbeing.
If you’re just starting out, start with Bronze first. The result of a Bronze measurement is just an estimate, but requires the least effort; whereas Silver, Gold and Gold+ give more accurate results but require more effort.
Each level has an effort to accuracy indicator, choose the one that’s right for you.
Bronze
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
Monetised social value: Multiply the proportion of the participating dwellings you expect to mitigate a hazard by £2,900
Silver
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
Monetised social value: Consider realistically what hazards you will be able to mitigate. Therefore, you can calculate a more accurate value of the savings to NHS and savings to society.
Gold
Effort
Accuracy
Monetised value:
Monetised value: Measure actual amounts of difference that improved housing makes to people’s lives.
| Value Type: | Outcome |
What's this?
This is the type of value. Some values are outcomes, which means many different interventions might lead to them, others are specific interventions that have a set value due to a mix of outcomes of varying amounts they may create. |
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| UN SDG Categories: |
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What's this?
The UN Sustainable Development Goals are global goals adopted in 2015 for all signed up nations to achieve for us to have a sustainable global future by 2030. There are 17 Goals that address the global challenges we face, including those related to poverty, inequality, climate change, environmental degradation, peace and justice. The Goals are all interconnected, and in order to leave no one behind, it is important that we achieve them all by 2030. |
| 2020 Social Value Models: |
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What's this?
PPN 06/20 Taking account of social value in the award of central government contracts introduced the Central Government Social Value Model in 2020 which all Central Government contracting authorities must use in their in scope procurements. It consists of 5 themes, 8 policy outcomes, and 24 Model Award Criteria which outline key priority areas to achieve more social value. |
| 2025 Social Value Models: |
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What's this?
PPN 06/20 was superseded by PPN 002 Taking account of social value in the award of contracts, published in February 2025 in line with the Royal assent of the Procurement Act 2023. This PPN outlined the requirement to use the new 2025 Central Government Social Value Model. The Model applies to all Central Government procurements commencing on or after 1 October 2025 under the Procurement Act 2023. Out of scope procurements can choose to apply the model but are not required to do so. The updated model is structured around 5 government missions and 8 outcomes, with 17 Model Award Criteria, and a mandatory minimum 10% weighting of the total evaluation score assigned to social value. |
Evidence
Measure Up focuses on empowering you to numerically measure the impact you’re having. We recommend that numeric reports are backed up with stories and other types of evidence to help illustrate, in human terms, the impact that’s being made on individuals.
We recommend seeking consent from participants in your intervention to collect and tell their story. This should include a little background on the participant, a summing up of life before the intervention, the human impact of the intervention, and the longer term (if known) impact on the person’s life outside of, and after, the intervention.
Providing photographs, audio recordings, video interviews or even artefacts from the intervention (for example, writing, paintings, music from creative interventions) can add more to the story, and convey the emotional impact of interventions more directly.
In some cases it’s appropriate to anonymise or abbreviate the personal information of case study participants. No story should be published or shared without the recorded consent of the individual(s) it concerns. Individuals continue to own the rights to their stories and if they request you stop sharing the story or making it available online you should do so promptly and without need for justification.
Feedback
Measure Up is an open, collaborative and transparent. If you have any suggestions or feedback on our pragmatic, recommended approach to measuring and valuing social value, including wellbeing, economic, and fiscal impact, and effects on our environment, please get in touch so we can share and discuss this at our next Advisory Group meeting.
More help
We want to empower anyone to perform and improve their impact measurement – without needing a degree in economics.
If you need any more help, or just someone to do the legwork for you we can help signpost you to software, training and consultancy to help you get to grips with the impact you’re having and value you are creating.
