Housing & Environment
In this theme, we aim to explore how housing and environmental factors can impact people’s wellbeing.
It aligns with Scottish Government commitments on transport, climate and housing emergencies, including net zero targets and adaptation planning. There is further potential to inform policy on social housing, tenant rights and homelessness.
Lead: Professor Nick Bailey, University of Glasgow and Professor Chris Dibben, University of Edinburgh
Over the next five years, our researchers will:
- Investigate the factors affecting the fabric of our Scottish communities, such as analysing the quantity of affordable housing available, what heating each household uses and how much, plus its effect on the environment.
- Explore the effects of interventions such as home energy improvements, clean heating and schemes like Warmer Homes, as well as outcomes for different population groups. We will also work with Scottish local authorities to understand critical antecedent events in people’s pathways into homelessness (including causal AI approaches).
- Analyse whether residents within each community have a choice of how they commute to work or school, and how this can affect their health.
- Analyse how different factors can impact on people’s lives and health - from where people grow up, the activities they engage in as young people, to how they commute to work as adults.
Later in our research, we will evaluate any travel initiatives or new policy support introduced in Scotland.
Our researchers will use a variety of linked data, including two new datasets: first, the Annual energy consumption data for properties in Scotland, and second, the Home Energy Efficiency Database (HEED). These datasets are expanding research opportunities, enabling analysis of household emissions, energy efficiency and the wider impacts of housing conditions on health and wellbeing.
Overall, this theme strengthens the evidence base for policies that improve living conditions, environmental sustainability and community wellbeing.
