ABSTRACT
This chapter will look at how cold housing affects general health, and in particular the role of health authorities in tackling this problem. The general relationship between housing and health has been acknowledged for some time and some of the earliest pioneers of public health recognised that improved quality of housing is one means to improve the health of the population. Yet the responsibility for designing, building and maintaining housing stock lie with a different set of organisations from those that are directly responsible for dealing with adverse health effects. For this reason health services are interested in playing their part towards the development of better quality housing as one means to improve the health of the population-though it is not always obvious what role the NHS can play. Such approaches are consistent with the current government’s emphasis on inter-sectoral work and the infamous ‘joined-up thinking’ as a way of tackling problems in one sector through action in another [Department of Health, 1997a].
