Warwick Law School appointed ‘Collaborating Centre for Housing Standards and Health’ by WHO

Warwick Law School will play a central part in developing standards and laws for housing issues in the UK after it was designated a ‘Collaborating Centre for Housing Standards and Health’ by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

According to Professor David Ormandy of Warwick Law School, more people die in their homes than on roads. “At work we have health and safety legislation, but homes remain dangerous places,” he says.

Warwick Law School will now play an important role in developing housing standards and laws, and providing advice to the WHO.

Ormandy worked with the WHO on the recent Large Analysis and Review of European Housing and Health Status (LARES) project, which looked at health and living conditions in eight cities across Europe.

The outcomes led to the WHO’s commitment to put health at the centre of all housing policies made at the European Minister’s conference at Budapest in 2005.

“In the past housing assessment focussed on the building,” says Ormandy. “Nowadays the focus is on potential threats to health and safety, the effect of defects, and that’s a result of the work at Warwick University.”