Assessing the impact of forced residential moves on health, and the modifying role of local housing services.
Housing insecurity is a growing problem in the UK, fuelled by rising unaffordability, lack of supply, and cuts to benefits. Housing insecurity has been linked to various poor mental and physical health outcomes. In England, eviction rates for tenants rose sharply between 2010 and 2015, coinciding with cuts to housing benefit payments for private renters, and reduced public spending on housing services under the UK Government’s austerity programme. During the pandemic, households have been protected by the furlough scheme, an eviction moratorium, and mortgage support measures. Now, as these protections are withdrawn, there is a risk of a crisis of rent and mortgage arrears, potentially leading to increases in evictions and repossessions, and any associated health burden. I will use Understanding Society to assess the impacts on health for adult and child household members experiencing forced residential moves or rent/mortgage arrears over the past decade. Constructing new event history data, I will consider both one-off and cumulative exposure to these forms of housing insecurity. Through new linkages to area-level data, I will also examine the impact of local authority investment in housing services, on risk of forced moves and as a moderator of health effects of forced moves and rent or mortgage arrears. By generating improved understanding of the health effects of housing insecurity in the UK, and the impact of reductions in potentially mitigating services provided locally, this Fellowship will inform place-based resource allocation and the provision of support for people at risk of –or experiencing –a forced move.
