Safe Home Summit: Skills and Policy for a Healthy Home MOT
This parliamentary event will examine the skills, powers and guidance required for responsible authorities to better prevent and address hazards such as carbon monoxide exposure in homes through the domestic energy transition.
Health and safety hazards in homes, such as fossil fuel heating, poor insulation and lacking ventilation entail a considerable public health burden: hazards cause billions in human and economic costs, scores of hospital admissions and hundreds of thousands of annual premature deaths.
To best prevent ill health and strain on the NHS, residents in all housing tenures should have access to a comprehensive safety service. Responsible authorities such as environmental health professionals, housing providers and gas professionals entering homes can all play a role in ensuring residents’ health and safety.
Government must ensure responsible professionals are trained, guided and empowered to realise a ‘healthy home MOT’ to enforce standards and address hazards.