{"id":525845,"date":"2025-07-29T12:45:20","date_gmt":"2025-07-29T11:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/?p=525845"},"modified":"2025-07-29T11:55:45","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T10:55:45","slug":"retrofitting-englands-homes-could-save-nhs-1-8bn-by-2050","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/buildings\/retrofitting-englands-homes-could-save-nhs-1-8bn-by-2050-29-07-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Retrofitting England&#8217;s homes could save NHS \u00a31.8bn by 2050"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Upgrading England\u2019s homes could save the NHS almost \u00a32bn by the middle of this century, research has revealed.<\/p>\n<p>A detailed paper published by government-funded science programme Climate Services for a Net Zero Resilient World (CS-Now) found that a range of retrofit measures could slash health expenditure by hundreds of millions of pounds.<\/p>\n<p>Academics including University College London research fellow Cairan Van Rooyen looked at the impact on human wellbeing of decarbonising the country\u2019s homes.<\/p>\n<p>It found that introducing sustainability products such as loft and wall insulation; double glazing with trickle vents; electric cookers; and air-source heat pumps could save the NHS \u00a31.8bn over 25 years.<\/p>\n<p>This would be achieved by reducing the money spent treating conditions such as asthma, lung cancer and cardiopulmonary disease, according to the report.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDecarbonising existing homes can have both positive and negative impacts on occupant comfort, wellbeing and physical health,\u201d said the study, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/assets.publishing.service.gov.uk\/media\/688213a73f770776241205c8\/health-impacts-of-net-zero-housing-in-england.pdf\">Health impacts of net-zero housing in England<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is essential that housing retrofits are evaluated in a holistic manner, accounting for health and healthcare costs as well as energy and carbon dioxide emissions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The academics merged the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero\u2019s National Building Model (NBM) with University College London\u2019s Health Impact of Domestic Energy Efficiency Measures system. They created an integrated microsimulation platform to simultaneously evaluate health impacts, energy demand and carbon dioxide emissions for various retrofit measures.<\/p>\n<p>The research considered the predicted impact on health of various domestic interventions, and analysed the related cost savings to the NHS across a number of specific conditions.<\/p>\n<p>Replacing gas with electric cookers has the greatest beneficial impact on population mortality, according to the study, increasing quality-adjusted life years (QALYs), a measure used to calculate health benefits, by 64 per 10,000 people.<\/p>\n<p>Switching out conventional heating systems such as gas boilers and electric heaters for air source heat pumps was estimated to increase mortality QALYs by up to 17 per 10,000.<\/p>\n<p>And full-fabric retrofits including wall and loft insulation could save the NHS about \u00a3300m, the study added.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cResults from scenarios modelled using NBM-Health indicate that implementing net-zero measures to occupied homes within the English housing stock has the potential to yield substantial health benefits,\u201d concluded the report.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, a report by the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) set out recommendations to scale up the retrofitting of homes in the region.<\/p>\n<p><em>Delivering retrofit at scale together: better homes for healthier, resilient and stronger communities<\/em> identified key challenges and opportunities to improve ageing housing stock in Greater Cambridge.<\/p>\n<p>It called for development of a data-driven retrofit strategy; collaboration on national policy advocacy; investment in staffing and digital infrastructure; consideration of\u00a0innovative financing models including council-backed loan schemes; closer working with\u00a0colleges, contractors and community groups on skills; and a robust project management system and public portal.<\/p>\n<p>CISL chief innovation officer James Cole said: \u201cWe know we already have a lot of the technology needed to make our homes better \u2013 both\u00a0 for the people who live in them, and for the planet and overall resilience of society.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat we need is consistent national-level policy that focuses not only on developing new homes but also improving our existing stock. A national direction of travel set over a longer period will give confidence to markets to step up and make this happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ministers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/buildings\/panel-created-to-overhaul-retrofit-standards-21-07-2025\/\">this month set up<\/a> an expert panel to advise on reforms to the UK\u2019s retrofit regulation system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Upgrading England\u2019s homes could save the NHS almost \u00a32bn by the middle of this century, research has revealed. A detailed paper published by government-funded science programme Climate Services for a Net Zero Resilient World (CS-Now) found that a range of retrofit measures could slash health expenditure by hundreds of millions of pounds. Academics including University &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87938,"featured_media":476878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[547,556],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-525845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buildings","category-sustainability"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.7 (Yoast SEO v26.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Retrofitting England&#039;s homes could save NHS \u00a31.8bn by 2050 | Construction News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Upgrading England\u2019s homes could save the NHS almost \u00a32bn by the middle of this century, research has revealed. 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