Homes for Health - Time for Action Template letter

People’s Health Trust has launched an England-wide campaign calling for stronger housing enforcement to tackle housing conditions that threaten the health of private tenants.

Evidence from grassroots community partners, national investigations and local research has shown that enforcement activity by local authorities can bring about swifter repairs.

You can add your voice to this campaign by writing to your member of parliament. The more of us raise the issue the more likely it is that we will bring about real change. You can use the postcode look up facility on the parliament website to find your MP.

If you can, use your own words to explain why this issue is important and make it relevant to your local area.

Your full address

Your postcode

Date

Dear (MP name),

My name is (insertyourname) and I am constituent of (name of constituency) and represent (Organisation name). I am writing to you today because I am concerned about how housing is impacting people’s health in my area.

We know that damp and mould is a rampant problem exacerbating respiratory conditions such as asthma and bronchitis, repairs to Category 1 safety hazards are left unremedied posing a serious risk of injury and illness.

People with asthma are two to three times more likely to live in cold and damp homes than those without asthma. Cold/damp homes are also associated with heightened risk and exacerbation of cardiovascular conditions like hypertensive heart diseases, heart attack and acute stroke, particularly in older adults. Cold conditions can exacerbate existing medical conditions such as diabetes, certain types of ulcers, musculoskeletal and rheumatological conditions.

A fifth of private rented homes in England fail to meet the Decent Homes Standard. Whilst we welcome the fact that the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has said that the standard will be applied to privately rented homes, as things stand tenants will continue to bear the risk of trying to realise the standard in their own homes.

People’s Health Trust has spoken to people from across England, Scotland and Wales who live and work in communities that are within the 30% most disadvantaged neighbourhoods in the country. As a local resident and representative of an organisation working in your constituency, I support their campaign for a more sustainable approach to housing enforcement by local authorities in England. We believe that local authorities need to be able to draw upon much stronger funding in order to enable them to instigate proactive inspections of landlords properties in their areas. Funding could come from either central government or from a licensing scheme whereby landlords pay financial contributions to the local authority in order for them to operate.

I would be grateful if you could write to the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to call for stronger enforcement of privately rented homes existing and any new standards for privately rented homes.

Please do keep me informed of any progress made.

Yours sincerely,

Name