Scottish Housing Day is an annual celebration of the achievements of the housing sector, and an opportunity to reflect and challenge how well it is meeting Scotland’s housing needs. It is led by a group of organisations co-ordinated by the Chartered Institute for Housing (CIH) Scotland, but Scottish Housing Day events and activities take place across the country.

This year, the theme was ‘Healthy Homes, Healthy Futures,’ examining the impact that housing can have on physical and mental health. Safe, comfortable housing that meets our needs is crucial to everyone’s wellbeing, and living in a home that isn’t accessible, secure or well-maintained can have severe negative effects on overall health.

At Under One Roof, we’re constantly advocating for safe, well-maintained tenements across Scotland, recognising the links between health and housing. We advocate for legislation that helps tenement owners take care of their buildings. We inform tenement owners about how to keep their homes energy efficient and watertight. We help landlords to understand the threats of damp and mould to the health of their tenants, and learn about how to tackle the problem. We support owners to work together and communicate openly, avoiding stress and discord even during difficult conversations. At the heart of our work is our aim to promote the sustainability and preservation not only of tenement buildings, but the communities who live in them.

This year, we contributed to a new report on the links between health and housing, published by CIH Scotland. The report demonstrates the strong links between good housing and good health, celebrating when housing providers are making this a reality, and examining the challenges that need to be overcome for residents to achieve good health. It identifies issues such as long waiting times for repairs, the high cost of fuel and damp and mould as key problems affecting the health of tenants and homeowners. Solutions identified include introducing mandatory owners’ associations to make the repair process easier, retrofitting tenements to improve their energy efficiency, and implementing the duties placed on landlords under Awaab’s Law to tackle damp and mould.

Read the report in full here.

The report was launched in the afternoon of Wednesday 16^th September, at an event at the Scottish Parliament. Our Chief Executive Mike Heffron and Education and Training Officer Katharina Bandmann attended the event, which was sponsored by Paul McLennan MSP, and heard from housing professionals and academics about the findings of the report.