What Selective Licensing tells us about health inequalities in Leeds

At the recent Health and Care Leaders event, the conversation started with deprivation.

Richard Haslett set the tone by grounding the room in the reality of the Indices of Deprivation 2025. The data shows that inequality in Leeds remains geographically concentrated. Eighty-four neighbourhoods in the city sit within the most deprived 10% nationally. Around 145,800 people live in those areas. Almost a quarter of children in Leeds grow up in neighbourhoods ranked within that lowest decile.

You can read our summary of the IMD 2025 data here.:
https://forumcentral.org.uk/english-indices-of-deprivation-2025/

But the purpose of presenting that data was not to describe a problem. It was to ask a harder question:

What are we doing about it?

Deprivation is not abstract

The deprivation data can feel technical. LSOAs. Domains. Rankings. Deciles.

But as Richard made clear, deprivation is not an abstract national metric. It shows up in the daily experience of neighbourhoods. It shows up in health outcomes. It shows up in school attainment, fuel poverty, environmental quality and housing conditions.

Sarah Erskine, drawing on the Institute of Health Equity’s work, reinforced that housing is one of the most powerful social determinants of health. Poor quality private rented housing contributes to respiratory illness, mental stress, risk of injury, and long-term disadvantage. In neighbourhoods already facing concentrated deprivation, housing conditions amplify inequality.

That framing matters.

Because it moves the conversation from compliance to prevention.

Where Selective Licensing fits

When Mark Ireland spoke about Selective Licensing, it was not presented as a technical regulatory scheme. It was presented as one lever within a broader health inequalities strategy.

The initial five-year designation period in Beeston and Harehills formally concluded in January 2025. But as the event discussion made clear, the work has not stopped. The Council continues to review, refine and develop its approach, building on the evidence gathered.

The Institute of Health Equity report on Selective Licensing in Leeds provides the scale of what was uncovered:

• The majority of inspected properties were not compliant with licence conditions.

• Over 6,700 property visits were carried out.

• More than 5,000 hazards were identified.

• Over 1,500 homes were significantly improved.

• More than 6,000 residents are now living in better-quality housing.

• Around 1,900 referrals were made into employment, financial, language and health support services.

Source – Institute of Health Equity – Licensing in Leeds.

But what came through most strongly at the event was not the enforcement statistics. It was the partnership working.

Selective Licensing created opportunities for collaboration between housing officers, public health, community safety, and third sector partners. It surfaced hidden need. It connected tenants to support. It disrupted criminal exploitation within the private rented sector. It shifted the relationship between compliance and community wellbeing.

That is not “housing policy” in isolation. That is system leadership.

The link back to deprivation

IMD 2025 shows that while Leeds has seen some relative improvement in national rankings since 2019, deprivation remains concentrated in specific inner-city neighbourhoods. The Living Environment domain, which includes housing quality and environmental factors, remains an area of pressure in parts of the city.

Deprivation data tells us where inequalities cluster. Selective Licensing shows what targeted action can look like in response. But the relationship between deprivation, housing conditions and health outcomes is not linear. It is layered and interconnected. The diagram below brings those connections together in one place.

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The short video below captures how deprivation and housing conditions intersect in practice, and why decent homes are central to reducing health inequalities in Leeds.

 

That connection between data and intervention was the thread running through the Health and Care Leaders discussion. Data should inform strategy. Strategy should lead to practical action. Action should be collaborative.

This is consistent with wider work across Leeds on health equity and system change, including previous conversations about housing and health through the Health and Housing Steering Group:
https://forumcentral.org.uk/health-and-housing-steering-group-selective-licensing-consultation/

Not finished. Evolving.

It would be wrong to frame Selective Licensing as a completed chapter.

What we heard at the event was clear: the Council and partners are continuing to build on this work. Lessons are being embedded. Conditions are being reviewed. Partnerships are being strengthened. Housing is being treated as part of the city’s health inequality response, not as a separate regulatory issue.

That forward-looking tone matters.

If deprivation data is the diagnostic tool, Selective Licensing is one example of treatment. It is imperfect, evolving, and complex. But it is rooted in the same principle that underpins Leeds’ Marmot approach: reducing avoidable inequalities by acting on the conditions in which people live.

Housing, health and deprivation are not separate conversations in Leeds.

At the Health and Care Leaders event, they were part of the same one.