Investigating potential health and health equality impacts of planning deregulation: The case of permitted development housing in England

BACKGROUND This novel research addresses the urgent need to address the health impacts and inequalities associated with housing created through Permitted Development (PD) in England. PD is a category of building activity which does not require a full planning permission, the consent usually granted by local government for development. Previous research has shown this deregulation is leading to a decline in housing quality (Clifford et al, 2018; 2020). Given extensive existing research linking housing and health, there has been speculation that this reduced regulatory control can lead to negative health and equity impacts (Marsh et al, 2020) but this is currently under-investigated. AIM & OBECTIVES Our research question is: What are the health and health inequality impacts of housing created through the new Permitted Development Rights? Our objectives are to: 1. Identify as many PD homes across England as possible, and identify the demographic, health and socioeconomic characteristics of populations living in PD housing, understanding how this compares to people living in areas with a similar level of socioeconomic deprivation 2. Analyse the associations between homes developed via PD, hospital admissions and mortality and how these compare to all-cause and cause-specific morbidity and mortality for populations living in non-PD housing 3. Characterise residents’ common health-related behaviours and experiences related to the indoor environment of PD housing, identifying variations across socio-economic status and housing tenure 4. Understand the exposures to excess heat and cold and indoor air pollutants of populations living in PD housing 5. Perform an integrated assessment of all housing-related health risks of homes built under PD, their health economic costs and the potential cost-benefit of altered regulation or required adaptations 6. Explore the regulatory and policy ‘levers’ available to local policy makers to protect against the most negative health effects of PD housing, and produce guidance to help them use these levers as effectively as possible METHODS Our transdisciplinary approach comprises five work packages collectively considering the extent of health impacts and inequities from PD housing with identification of potential interventions and their cost implications. The project involves both primary and secondary research including data linkage and statistical analysis, questionnaire survey and interviews with residents, housing environmental surveys and monitoring, interviews and focus groups with policy makers and local government officers, and health economic analysis. The project utilises the principles of co-production to ensure the ability for non-academic input to help shape it. IMPACT & DISSEMINATION Our work will inform policy about deregulation in urban planning to ensure healthier outcomes in the built environment. In addition to journal articles and open access data sets, findings will be disseminated to national-level policy makers via a range of interventions, and we will produce guides and workshops for local government officials with a view to considering regulatory tools to reduce negative health and wellbeing impacts. We will also develop guidance om retrofit strategies for residents and landlords of existing PD homes. TIMELINES The project duration is 36 months. Interim outputs such as conference presentations will be provided with outputs combining the findings across our work packages in 2025.