Making Housing Better

Healthy Homes Hub

Welcome to Making Housing Better, the podcast from the Healthy Homes Hub which each week dives into a topic on the question of healthy homes so we can all improve our knowledge and learn how we can each contribute to making housing better. We're a membership body driving collaboration for healthier living environments, a knowledge resource helping housing providers deliver healthy homes as well as being a voice to articulate the benefit and value of good health in the home. Join us and let’s make housing better, together!

  1. Understanding Homes Before Moisture Becomes Mould

    6 DAYS AGO

    Understanding Homes Before Moisture Becomes Mould

    A conversation that reveals why damp and mould are symptoms of deeper system failures and how prevention, design and data can change the story for residents. This episode with James Green, founder of Breathe Pure, explores why the sector keeps fighting the same damp and mould battles and what it would take to finally get ahead of them. James’ journey from high end construction to flood restoration and then into humidity control brings a refreshing clarity to a problem too often framed as tenant behaviour rather than building performance.

    34 min
  2. Designing Out Failure, Not Residents

    23 FEB

    Designing Out Failure, Not Residents

    How understanding capability and motivation can transform service delivery, trust, and outcomes in social housing. Drawing on behavioural science and lived experience, Naomi explains why housing has normalised disconnected processes, repairs, compliance, arrears, retrofit, and then blamed residents when engagement breaks down. Her award-winning customer segmentation model reframes residents not as “hard to reach” but as people with differing capability, confidence, opportunity, and motivation. Key insights include: - Why counting activity is not the same as measuring outcomes or wastage - How siloed services erode trust and drive no-access, rework, and cost - Why “one-size-fits-all” communication fails, especially for damp, mould, and retrofit programmes - The risk of gaming Tenant Satisfaction Measures rather than using them to genuinely improve services

    52 min
  3. Ella’s Legacy, The Right To Breathe

    16 FEB

    Ella’s Legacy, The Right To Breathe

    What Ella’s story reveals about air pollution, housing, and why clean air must be treated as a basic public health protection, not a postcode lottery. Nine year old Ella Adoo Kissi Debrah was the first person in the UK to have air pollution named on her death certificate. In this powerful conversation, Rosamund Adoo Kissi-Debrah CBE joins host Jenny Danson, CEO of Healthy Homes Hub, to share Ella’s story and what must change in law, policy and housing. Key themes include: - How 28 months of hospital admissions exposed the invisible harm caused by polluted air. - Why Ella’s Law, the Clean Air (Human Rights) Bill, seeks to make clean air a legal right and align with World Health Organization standards. - The links between outdoor and indoor air, COVID, PM2.5 and chronic conditions such as asthma, heart disease and dementia. - Why new homes must be built to healthy standards so they do not need immediate retrofit. - The role of public campaigns, schools and public buildings in making “safe air” the norm.

    41 min
  4. Ground Source Heat for Real Homes

    9 FEB

    Ground Source Heat for Real Homes

    How Amplius is using ground source heat pumps to learn what it really takes to align design, delivery and residents’ day to day lives in new social housing developments. Hosted by Jenny Danson, Co founder and CEO of Healthy Homes Hub, this episode brings together Marcus Keys, Andy Barradell and Leonie Jansen from Amplius to explore what happens when an organisation commits to ground source heat across almost 200 new homes. They discuss: - Why Amplius chose ground source over gas and air source, and what that meant for capital cost, lifecycle performance and Future Homes Standard readiness. - The design reality of “retrofitting on a new build”, from boreholes and haul roads to the practicalities of finding space for shoeboxes, cylinders and larger radiators. - How early collaboration between designers, M and E specialists, principal contractors and subcontractors can prevent gaps, delays and avoidable confusion on site. - Leonie’s brilliant “fridge” analogy, and why resident education, simple controls and in person demos matter as much as the engineering itself.

    45 min
  5. Tenant Power: Scaling Social Housing Decarbonisation

    2 FEB

    Tenant Power: Scaling Social Housing Decarbonisation

    Tenant Power brings together Octopus Energy and Together Housing to create a new model for clean, affordable energy. In this episode, Nigel Banks and Patrick Berry explain how solar, batteries and smart tariffs can work together to cut bills, reduce carbon and reshape long term asset strategy. They discuss: • Why the economics of solar and battery systems have shifted, making it possible for tenants and landlords to share the benefits • Lessons from Together Housing’s early pilots and how the evidence base underpins the current large scale roll out • How Tenant Power gives every resident the same percentage bill reduction whether they have four panels or fourteen • Practical challenges around DNO permissions, valuation of battery services and the need for simple, transparent billing • Why landlords should rethink solar and storage as permanent revenue generating assets rather than cost lines

    37 min
  6. Early Mediation Changes the Trajectory

    26 JAN

    Early Mediation Changes the Trajectory

    How pausing, listening and early resolution can prevent harm, reduce stress and create healthier outcomes for residents and housing teams alike. In this episode of Making Housing Better, Jenny Danson, CEO of Healthy Homes Hub, is joined by Insley Ettienne, Founder and Director of Cosil Solutions, to explore why mediation is not a “soft option”, but a strategic leadership tool.

    32 min
  7. Housing Data, Real Lives, Real Change

    19 JAN

    Housing Data, Real Lives, Real Change

    What Greater Manchester is learning about healthier homes Greater Manchester’s Connected Homes Inclusive Places Programme (CHIPPs) shows how connected technology, when used ethically and with purpose, can strengthen prevention and support healthier living. In this episode, Jenny Danson, Co-founder of Healthy Homes Hub, speaks with John Duncan, Connected Places Lead at GMCA, about turning data into real-world improvements for residents.

    32 min
  8. It’s Still With Us… Collaborating on Damp and Mould

    12 JAN

    It’s Still With Us… Collaborating on Damp and Mould

    A grounded conversation on why damp and mould persist, what Awaab’s Law changes, and why diagnosis, culture and collaboration matter more than ever. Damp and mould are not new, yet they remain one of the most persistent risks to health in social housing. In this episode of Making Housing Better, host Andy Cameron-Smith, joined by Lucy Mullineux of Baily Garner and Simon Thirtle from Ward Hadaway, explores why the issue continues to surface and what needs to change to achieve lasting improvement.

    38 min
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About

Welcome to Making Housing Better, the podcast from the Healthy Homes Hub which each week dives into a topic on the question of healthy homes so we can all improve our knowledge and learn how we can each contribute to making housing better. We're a membership body driving collaboration for healthier living environments, a knowledge resource helping housing providers deliver healthy homes as well as being a voice to articulate the benefit and value of good health in the home. Join us and let’s make housing better, together!

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