A consultation among Health Visitors in Gateshead recently identified that there was a lack of readily available information on standards of housing in Gateshead. The full blog contains links to some sources of information on standards of housing stock and local housing regeneration programmes..........
Information on the quality of housing stock is thin on the ground. The standard of housing is an important wider determinant of health, and an assessment of the quality of housing stock within a local community can inform community level Health Needs Assessment. Where the quality of housing stock is identified as being poor it is useful to be aware of current and future regeneration programmes. This article suggests some sources of information in this area.
The Census is carried out across England every 10 years. The most recent Census, in 2001, asked whether a house had central heating. The proportion of houses that have central heating in a local area can give some indication of the general standard of housing stock. This information is available from the Office for National Statistics "Neighbourhood Statistics" website for areas of different sizes, from England, the NE and Gateshead as a whole, down to "output areas" which are local areas comprising around 125 households or 300 people. The website allows you to type in a postcode and it will return a map of local areas, for which the central heating indicator can be measured.
In addition the “Bridging NewcastleGateshead� partnership publish a lot of useful information on current and future housing regeneration projects. Their website is at www.bridgingng.org.uk. Of particular interest is the first edition of a newsletter “Your Area, Your News� concerning housing regeneration developments in Bensham & Saltwell, Teams, Deckham and Felling which can be accessed on the internet by following the above link. In addition to the newsletter, there are some useful maps for each of the four areas, showing current and proposed housing and environmental developments. The maps can be accessed by following the relevant link:
Bensham & Saltwell
Deckham
Felling
Teams
Other resources relating to the four areas are available at http://www.bridgingng.org.uk/plans.htm.
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