The Housing, Energy and Wellbeing (HEW) Project

Funded by the EPSRC and managed by staff at the The Complex Built Environment Systems group (CBES) at UCLinvestigates Integrated decision making about housing, energy and well-being, and supports policy making decisions about housing.

The project is situated at the interface between research and policy, thereby enhancing its relevance and impact for cross-government policies, including in health, energy, economics, communities and local government.

This allows policy-makers and other stakeholders to understand the many links between housing, energy and wellbeing. The research will lead to better recognition of the long-term effects of policies, and hopefully the recognition of effective policies that mean a variety of goals about housing can be achieved. These goals could relate to housing affordability, energy efficiency, healthy houses and safe communities. At the moment these goals are considered separately by different agencies, leading to policies that can support one goal but undermine others.

The report summarises the work carried out so far to develop collaborative causal maps about housing, energy and wellbeing. The maps have been constructed from 35 in-depth interviews with stakeholders and a multi-disciplinary literature review. They were reviewed and adapted by 26 policy, NGO, industry and academic stakeholders in a workshop and reflect further feedback from both individual stakeholders, two community roots group workshops and a second all-stakeholder workshop.

Email for further information please contact either: clive.shrubsole.09@ucl.ac.uk or mike.davies@ucl.ac.uk