One of our aims with the Scottish Health Equity Research Unit is to analyse how different policies in different parts of the UK have shaped outcomes. Replicating existing analysis presents a good opportunity to look at the issues that matter most elsewhere in the UK and to provide a companion analysis for Scotland.
A paper by the Resolution Foundation, published in May 2024, covered a number of different areas to explain trends in housing in England[1]. Their paper was part of their General Election programme of analysis and the analysis was focused on England (housing is a devolved issue). The themes they discussed remain of interest in England post General Election for the new UK Government and are also high up the agenda in Scotland.
Housing has key implications for health outcomes. Issues with housing affordability and the quality of lower cost housing stock have direct implications for both physical and mental health. Moreover, unstable housing situations can create difficulties for families trying to find stability. Therefore, housing policy is a key tool for mitigating health inequalities, and as a devolved area, the Scottish Government have a lot of control over what happens.
This paper moves through a series of themes related to housing that were presented in the original Resolution Foundation analysis for England. Our aim is to provide a sense of similarities and differences between the Scottish and English experiences. We finish with some reflections on what governments across the UK can learn from policy choices made.
Authors
Emma Congreve is Principal Knowledge Exchange Fellow and Deputy Director at the Fraser of Allander Institute. Emma's work at the Institute is focussed on policy analysis, covering a wide range of areas of social and economic policy. Emma is an experienced economist and has previously held roles as a senior economist at the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and as an economic adviser within the Scottish Government.