Poor housing 'fueling child health crisis'

The United Kingdom's Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health has warned that the state of housing in the country is now "a crucial issue for child health" after damp and moldy environments were linked to thousands of hospital admissions of young children with lung conditions.

The link between housing conditions and health problems was particularly highlighted by a coroner's verdict last year that mold was a contributory factor to the death of a two-year-old boy who died in the northern English town of Rochdale in 2020.

This prompted Minister for Levelling Up Michael Gove to tell Parliament in November 2022: "We hope that we can end the scandal of residents having to live in shoddy, substandard homes … we want to restore the right of everyone in this country, whatever their race or cultural background, to live somewhere warm, decent, safe, and secure."

But 12 months after that statement, Andy Knox, an associate medical director for the National Health Service, told The Guardian newspaper that poor quality housing is having a "profoundly negative impact on the nation's health", putting yet more strain on an already struggling health service.

"It is becoming a really major health issue for us as a nation, and we need legislation that is going to properly deal with this," he said. "Around 31,000 children are admitted to hospital each year with respiratory syncytial virus-related conditions."

He said it was a particular issue in the most disadvantaged areas.

"Evidence from other countries with comparable housing conditions to the United Kingdom would suggest that around 20 percent of these are likely directly linked to damp or mold-ridden homes."

A message posted by the Association of Directors of Public Health on social media platform X said: "Where we live is a building block of our health and has lasting impacts on our wellbeing. Children have a right to live in safe, high-quality housing, which protects their health and allows them to grow-up in a safe environment."

Figures published by consumer charity Citizens Advice show that 1.6 million children are living in privately rented homes with damp, mold or that are excessively cold, and the situation is made worse by the cost of living crisis and high fuel bills.

In May this year, ITV News highlighted the case of a London woman who said she could not bring her baby daughter home from hospital after treatment for leukemia because of damp problems in their council-owned property that stretched back five years.

"Year-after-year, I've been contacting the council and asking them for help, but year-after-year the mold is coming back," said Shipa Kamaly. "All the council have done is given us a mold wash with a special cleaner and they have painted over it. But in winter the mold starts seeping in, my children sleep on a moldy mattress."