POOR housing is making the nation sick, according to a landmark report published today.

Three-quarters of health workers regularly see patients whose poor housing is harming their health, a poll by charity Medact found.

Another 45 per cent reported having to send a patient home knowing their housing would make them ill again.

Sophia, a clinical psychologist, told the charity: “We see the same issues time and again – families living in mould-ridden, insecure homes, children developing asthma and anxiety, elderly people afraid to turn on their heating.

“We’re not treating patients. We’re sending them back into the very conditions that made them sick.”

Sixty-five per cent reported that patients were living in excessively cold homes, while 61 per cent hear of damp and mould.

The report noted the crisis is especially acute among vulnerable groups such as older adults, disabled people and children.

Sixty-nine per cent of workers said that making renting more affordable would reduce the burden on the NHS.

Another 58 per cent said that increasing the supply of social housing would ease pressures on the health service.

The report set out 10 recommendations, including rent controls, a national retrofitting programme, and a social energy guarantee.

Laura Vicinanza, of disability organisation Inclusion London, said: “Medact’s new report uncovers a very grim reality: poor and unaffordable housing doesn’t just worsen people’s existing health conditions — it creates new ones, with health professionals left to pick up the pieces of a broken housing system. 

“The government has the power to solve this crisis. They can act now by making rents more affordable and kickstarting a revolution in accessible social homebuilding.”

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government was contacted for comment.