News

Healthy Housebuilding: parliamentary launch.

20/04/2018

Our co-authored report gets a positive response from MPs.

The Government has a policy to target 300,000 new homes being built every year. We believe it’s absolutely vital that these homes are built with health & wellbeing principles integrated into the design.

The GBC-UK report

To inform and influence MPs on the importance of this, we have been working closely with the UK Green Building Council (UK-GBC) as a contributing author and sponsor of its Healthy Housebuilding report.

On Wednesday, our Head of Sustainability, Ashely Bateson, presented the report at its parliamentary launch.

Ashley Bateson, Head of Sustainability

He summarised the findings to a large audience of MPs and stakeholders, emphasising the need for a mainstream expectation and drive for design quality (and a wellbeing focus) in planning and house building.

The report highlights how design of the home is key to how people perceive their wellbeing.

It also demonstrates the importance of providing good daylight, effective ventilation strategies, acoustic quality and opportunities for green landscaping in house building.

The report was well received, with Rishi Sunak MP for the constituency of Richmond commenting: “Congratulations on putting this together, and being at the forefront of an exciting new trend in health and wellbeing.”

Left to right: Ashley Bateson (Hoare Lea), Jenny Holland (UKGBC), Rebecca Pow MP, and Martin Townsend (BRE).

 

The report includes:

– A summary of the results from a recent survey of householders on home design.
– A selection of case studies highlighting the aspects of healthy design.
– A commentary on the cost of building healthier homes.
– A short set of policy recommendations.

Read the full report here and use #HealthyHousebuilding on social media to share your thoughts.