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The government has for the first time released coronavirus guidance aimed specifically at people living in overcrowded or shared housing.
The guidance sets out “additional steps” that those living in this type of accommodation, or where there are shared areas in blocks of flats, should consider “to reduce the risk of catching or passing on COVID-19”.
Issued by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, the guidance warns: “It may be harder for residents of overcrowded properties to take appropriate precautions to protect themselves from coronavirus in the same way as residents of other properties.”
It includes suggestions for letting air into the home, cleaning, handling food and the use of bathrooms.
Landlords are advised to close non-essential indoor communal space in buildings where social distancing is not possible and to pay increased attention “to any potential defects in sanitary plumbing systems in residential blocks, such as unexplained odours”.
MPs will later discuss household overcrowding and the COVID-19 outbreak in a Westminster Hall debate tabled by Labour’s Stephen Timms.
A recent report by thinktank The Health Foundation concluded that overcrowded housing in England may have contributed to increased deaths during the pandemic.
In June last year, a Public Health England review into why Black and minority ethnic people had been worst hit by the virus found that issues of overcrowding and housing conditions had contributed to increased infection rates among these communities.
That came after analysis by Inside Housing highlighted the correlation between the areas with the highest COVID-19 death rates and the worst overcrowding problems in the first wave of the pandemic.
According to the English Housing Survey, overcrowding in the social housing sector is “at the highest rate it has ever been”, with 8% of all tenants living in homes with fewer bedrooms than they need.
The guidance issued today considers accommodation to be overcrowded “if its size and the amount of people living in it could risk harming the health of the residents”.
It also encourages tenants who believe their home “has a serious overcrowding hazard” that affects their ability to follow coronavirus guidance to contact their local authority.
Councils have powers to require landlords to fix serious overcrowding hazards.
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