David Ormandy, who has died aged 78, was responsible as much as anyone for the adoption 20 years ago of the housing health and safety rating system (HHSRS), a legal method of assessing housing conditions in England and Wales. Co-designed by Ormandy and introduced by the 2004 Housing Act, it shifted the assessment of fitness away from the condition of the property itself and more on to the effects of poor housing on residents’ health – which costs the NHS £1.4bn a year.
It puts a duty on local authorities to deal with dangerous and unhealthy housing conditions including damp and condensation. Its use has reaped significant health benefits for tenants. In Liverpool, for example, since the legislation came in, 6,000 HHSRS inspections have led to the removal of more than 4,400 serious hazards, yielding more than £5m in investment by private landlords and benefitting more than 47,000 tenants.
Starting out as a public health inspector in Leicester , Ormandy later developed the HHSRS with others, including Professor Roger Burridge, at Warwick University. Since 2004 HHSRS has won attention overseas: the US has adopted it, and Ormandy later helped develop housing-health indicators for the World Health Organisation, while also advising the French and New Zealand governments. Born in York, David was the son of Molly (nee Sowray) and Arthur Ormandy, a lighthouse lens maker.
He lived his early years, fittingly, in New Earswick, the model village on the edge of the city built as a re.