Home Use and Experience during COVID-19 in London: Problems of Housing Quality and Design

Abstract

COVID-19 lockdowns led to a reassessment of housing conditions and created greater awareness of their impact on wellbeing and inequalities. Changes in home use and lived experience during the pandemic were studied through a survey of London residents (n = 1250) in 2021, focusing on issues of housing design, perceptions of housing quality, and future housing expectations. The survey found that a quarter of all dwellings and at least one room in a third of homes were deemed too small and failing to meet the needs of occupants. Renters with a shortage of space and poorly maintained or designed homes suffered most. A total of 37.9% of respondents reported that their wellbeing was affected by housing conditions. While for well-designed homes aspects of dwelling size were considered the highest priority, dwelling layout, usability, adaptability, and flexibility were equally key concerns. However, how problems of housing design, quality, and size are understood often depends on highly individual experiences and expectations. By highlighting the importance of lived experience, the pandemic shows the limitations of current, normative design standards. Future space standards need greater flexibility in the distribution of floor areas and should consider a wider range of home uses to ensure more equitable and long-term housing provision.

My home—my castle? Self-reported anxiety varies in relation to the subjective evaluation of home environment

“…Another study from the UK examined changes in how homes were inhabited and how the intended purpose of a home changed, housing quality, and associated well-being among London residents ( n = 1,250) during the COVID-19 pandemic. 37.9% of respondents felt adversely affected by housing conditions, with noise being the most common problem and the most influential factor (Jacoby and Alonso, 2022 ). A meta-analysis including five studies with a total of n = 372,079 participants found a 12% (95% CI: −4%, 30%) higher likelihood of anxiety, which was proportionally associated with a 10 dB(A) increase in night-time noise levels during the day and evening (Dzhambov and Lercher, 2019 ).…”

Effects of COVID-19 on Sustainability of Residential Spaces and Communities

“…When people suffer from a long-term lockdown period and pandemic, due to some requirements stipulated in the prevention policy, people lose certain opportunities to go out and enjoy the entertainment [8]. With this opportunity, in order to make the house with a variety of functions and to meet people's satisfaction that can be fulfilled the concerns caused by the pandemic, the house can add some diversified areas, including the fitness areas, greenery areas or entertainment areas for people [9]. In addition, the buffering space should be added to every room to cope with emergencies and pandemics as well.…”

Planning deregulation as solution to the housing crisis: The affordability, amenity and adequacy of Permitted Development in London

“…As Clifford et al (2019: 1) acknowledge, the dominance of case-study, interview-based approaches does ‘not provide a comprehensive or systematic review of all the schemes typical in any particular area’, suggesting a need for more extensive overviews of the size, location and quality of residential conversions. The latter is clearly a highly subjective matter, but COVID-19 showed that inferior housing can impact dramatically on mental and physical health, with people living in smaller homes during lockdown reporting difficulty in combining working and leisure in cramped surroundings (Hubbard et al, 2021; Jacoby and Alonso, 2022). This has renewed discussion of what constitutes an ‘adequate’ home, with the Government’s (2006) definition of ‘decent’ housing stipulating only that it should be of adequate size and layout; reasonably modern in terms of facilities and services; and able to provide a ‘minimum’ but unspecified degree of comfort.…”