title: Housing quality, mental well-being and social valuation in the United Kingdom – a case study approach
Creators: name: Emeghe, Ijeoma Jane
Publisher: name: University of Reading
Year: 2024

description: Better, more reliable social valuation data to inform the procurement of public authority 
social housing provision has become seen as a priority for efficient, or ‘best value’, monetary 
resource allocation in the United Kingdom (UK). Meanwhile, the UK political agenda has 
come to recognise the significance for productivity and economic development of societal 
mental well-being. There is a wealth of scientific evidence on associations between the 
physical conditions of the home and population health and well-being. However, micro panel 
data used by the UK Housing Associations’ Charitable Trust (HACT) and reports by Social 
Value UK, have identified a deficit of empirical data on housing and environmental 
conditions, design and quality, that have a bearing on mental well-being for incorporation in 
public sector social valuation. While the medical sciences have increasingly recognised the 
value of qualitative approaches for understanding mental well-being as individually 
experienced in peoples’ everyday lives, positivist policy-focused approaches to housing 
economics have been critiqued as neglecting social theory. Accordingly, this thesis addresses 
the gap in evidence on the relationship between social housing characteristics and mental 
well-being as experienced by residents, by adopting a post-positivist research approach.
In-depth interviews with twenty long-term residents of the Orts Road social housing estate 
in Reading, South-East England, explore the effects of the home on their sense of mental 
well-being, emotional health, autonomy, and ability to participate actively in society. The 
residents' narratives reveal their perceived levels of adjusting to their dwellings and the 
coping techniques they employ to navigate their mixed feelings about their living situations. 
Residents emphasise the importance of social connections, a strong sense of community, 
and local facilities that foster sociability and cohesiveness, for overall happiness and a 
thriving community. The findings demonstrate the significant influence of housing design 
and quality on residents' experiences of autonomy and mental well-being in the social 
production of their overall health. 
The research makes three original contributions. Firstly, the results offer qualitative 
empirical evidence of the relationship between housing design, quality, occupant sense of 
autonomy and mental well-being to inform the development of improved public sector social 
valuation in housing services procurement. Secondly, by employing social constructionist 
and structuration theories in a modified structuration conceptual framework, the research 
sheds light on how a system of social housing provision that pays regard to resident lived 
experiences of mental well-being and functioning, could bring government social value and 
economic objectives into closer alignment. Thirdly, the research contributes to ongoing 
scholarly discourse on the challenges of improving the dialogue between qualitative and 
quantitative approaches to analysis in the linked fields of social valuation and housing 
studies.