Housing Quality, Autonomy, and Well-being: Calculating the Social Value of Investing in Housing Quality in the United Kingdom

Mental health and well-being receives a growing source of concern and it is an ever-evolving field of research to international institutions, governments, scholars, communities and individuals alike. The research focused on housing quality, autonomy and mental well-being investigates the associativity that may exist between these, which are the influences of the physical conditions of the home and the psychosocial environment on individual mental well-being, with an aim to deriving quantifiable estimates for statistically significant factors, that is, monetising well-being within the UK housing environment, currently understudied. Following on from literature, the research is underpinned using a trio-theoretical framework designed to measure health inequality; however, adapted to suit the current research. A mixed methodological technique is employed that caters to the two divides of the study. On the one hand, the study examines existing micro (household unit of analysis) panel data set relating to housing quality and mental well-being analysis, and the financial estimation of relevant factors. On the other, and due to obvious drawbacks on existing data set with regards to environmental and design quality and occupier autonomy, the second part of the research conducts one-to-one semi-structured in-depth interviews on a select case study to plug the identified gaps on individual well-being research. The contributions of the study are wide-ranging spanning informing policy circles and housing providers’ decision making, to informing an improvement to the UK social value toolkit through the well-being valuation approach. Where this approach doubles as mediation to inequality by revealing salient well-being needs for effective resource allocation.