Asthma Friendly Homes
Help housing providers and healthcare partners work together to tackle housing-related respiratory illness in children
Children in social housing are disproportionately affected by housing-related respiratory illness. Up to 80% of health outcomes are shaped by social determinants including living environments, yet housing and health services too often operate in silos. In Tower Hamlets, one of England's most deprived boroughs, overcrowding is severe and waits for rehousing can stretch 10 to 15 years. The system cannot move families, so it must work with the homes they have.
This project builds directly on WHG's ACEing Asthma programme, which delivers their Asthma Friendly Homes model and has supported 293 children from 113 families and received national recognition. Awaab's Law and growing NHS interest in preventative, community-led models make the timing particularly strong. The four housing associations will be piloting the approach in Tower Hamlets, using co-designed playbooks to develop a nationwide blueprint on how to deliver WHG’s Asthma Friendly Homes model.
Core aims
Prevention: address housing-related health risks and tackle wider determinants including fuel poverty, child poverty and overcrowding
Integration: enable housing providers and health partners to replicate effective joined-up delivery models
Community Leadership: embed lived experience through the WHG Community Champion model to reach families with greatest barriers to services
Wider Determinants: reduce health issues caused by fuel poverty, child poverty, lone-parent households and language barriers
Value Demonstration: evidence the health, social and financial value of prevention through a cost-benefit framework
Key outputs
Playbook 1: Housing-Health Integration: governance models, referral pathways, joint commissioning guidance
Playbook 2: Community Champions: recruitment, training and support guide; cultural competency framework
Cost-Benefit Framework: evidence of reduced hospital admissions, regulatory savings and prevention value
UK-Wide Blueprint: scalable guidance for sector-wide adoption, modelled on the Asthma Friendly Schools programme
Data Sharing Solutions: sensor use, Housing AI and secure data-sharing options