Pollution, green spaces, and housing: How our environment affects our health

This blog by Evie Parmenter, Senior Research Portfolio Manager at the Economic and Social Research Council, explores the powerful connection between our environment and our health. Drawing on insights from research funded by ADR UK, it highlights how factors like pollution, green space access, and housing conditions shape wellbeing, and how linked administrative data can help drive better decisions and healthier outcomes.

What does your local air quality, access to green space, or your housing situation have to do with your health? As it turns out: quite a lot. Thanks to research supported by ADR UK, we are gaining a clearer picture of how the places we live, learn, and grow up in shape our physical and mental wellbeing, and how policy can respond.

I recently attended a Health Data Research UK and Office for National Statistics (ONS) webinar on health, environment, and data science, where two ADR UK-funded researchers - Professor Pia Hardelid (University College London) and Professor Rich Fry (Swansea University) - shared how they are using linked administrative data to unlock real-world insights.

Linking early-life environments to long-term outcomes

Professor Pia Hardelid’s research explores how factors like air pollution, housing quality and green space access affect children's health, particularly in their early years when they are especially at risk from environmental harms.

Her team is developing the Kids’ Environment and Health Cohort, a major new ADR UK-supported resource combining national health, housing, education and environmental data. With nearly eleven million deidentified records already linked, it will enable long-term research into how early exposures affect outcomes later in life. The first phase of the dataset will be available to researchers from March 2026.

This kind of rich, linked data makes it possible to:

• identify how environmental risks vary across the country
• measure impacts on at-risk children
• test what works by evaluating policy interventions.

Data driving better policy and real impact

Professor Rich Fry’s work at Swansea University focuses on how anonymised health and housing data can support healthier, more resilient communities, particularly among older adults.

One standout example: an ADR Wales evaluation of Care & Repair Cymru, a home improvement service aimed at older people. The findings showed that those receiving support were significantly less likely to be admitted to a care home. This evidence helped secure continued public investment in the programme.

This research also shines a light on:

• how geospatial data like Unique Property Reference Numbers (UPRNs) can strengthen links between people, places and services
• the need for better tools and methods to assess environmental exposure
• how to navigate the trade-offs between data access and public trust.

Public benefit through collaboration

Both speakers stressed the value of cross-sector collaboration - not only between researchers, but also with policymakers, data owners, and the public. Pia pointed to ongoing engagement with departments like the Department for Health and Social Care and Department for Education, and the importance of producing policy-friendly outputs such as short summaries for decision-makers.

This kind of work demonstrates the power of administrative data to address complex, interconnected issues, as well as the importance of making sure that evidence reaches the people who can act on it.

Learn more

Whether through helping children thrive or enabling older people to live independently for longer, ADR UK research is showing how data - used responsibly and innovatively - can be a force for public good. Learn more about ADR UK’s work below.

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