Damp places, unhappy faces: local authority housing repairs and maintenance expenditure on residents’ wellbeing in England

This paper examines the relationship between local authority housing repairs and maintenance expenditure and the wellbeing of residents in England, in the context of significant funding cuts, between 2013 and 2021 using the Understanding Society dataset. Drawing on the environmental stress theory, ontological security and social determinants of health, the research explores how repairs and maintenance spending, viewed as a proxy for the quality and/or scale of repairs and maintenance interventions, impacts individual mental and physical wellbeing over time. Using two-way fixed effects models, the results reveal a significant positive association between repairs and maintenance expenditure in the one-year lagged period (t-1) for mental wellbeing and across all time periods (t, t-1, t-2) for the physical wellbeing for those in inadequate housing. The interaction housing conditions and spending suggests effects are concentrated towards tenants in inadequate housing with null results for those in adequate dwellings. This study contributes to the existing literature on housing and wellbeing by providing robust evidence of the effects of austerity-induced (dis-)investment. The results have important implications for policymakers, highlighting the need to create targeted investment in local authority properties to ensure equitable and sustainable living conditions for vulnerable populations.