Research
Research has helped us better understand how the broader New Zealand public, politicians and news media currently talk about homes and health, informing how best to craft communications to deepen the conversation.
There is an established body of evidence demonstrating that warm, dry, energy efficient homes are a foundation of physical, mental and social health and wellbeing, and are essential for a low-carbon future. In spite of this, the behavioural and policy changes needed for healthy and energy efficient homes in New Zealand are occurring very slowly, if at all.
Research shows that effective narrative change communications help to deepen people’s understanding so that they are more likely to support changes in policy and behaviour that will make the biggest difference to the health of people and the planet. When this project was developed in 2022, narrative change communications was a new and little-tested approach to healthy homes communication in Aotearoa New Zealand, though it had been used effectively with other complex social issues and in other countries in relation to the housing system.
A Scoping Study by narrative communication researchers The Workshop in 2021 identified potential for narrative communication work to support a transformational shift in mindsets around homes and health in New Zealand, and provided recommendations, including for primary research to understand more about the existing mindsets and ways of talking in Aotearoa, and testing of new more helpful ways of talking.
Partnering with The Workshop, the WRHHG Communications Working Group developed an action research programme focused on tested messaging and coordinated communication informed by the narrative approach. This research, together with the broader body of research that informs the narrative communication approach (see Related Research section below) provides the evidence base for the advice on this site.
Learn more about the action research findings.
Public, political and news media talk - how do they compare?
Key findings:
- Public conversation demonstrates a nuanced and holistic view of both health and the home: it recognises the value of security of tenure for building community and allowing for participation in public life; it describes the mental, emotional, and health burdens of living in unhealthy homes; and it offers helpful ways to talk about what better, healthier homes can look like.
- Political discourse analysis on the other hand found a predominantly economic framing resulting in a focus mostly on housing supply and houses as assets, and often involved presenting a win-lose framing suggesting that health homes standards are a barrier to increasing housing stock.
- There is some helpful media framing already happening. To build on this and broaden the frame on housing in our public conversations beyond a narrow focus on cost and supply, we can draw on what we glean from listening carefully to how people talk about their homes.
- Our current research on Voices of Lived Experience can give us more information on the ways in which people with lived experience of healthier homes talk about that experience.
Public Narratives Survey
In late 2022, WRHHG commissioned a survey to gather information about how New Zealanders talk about homes and health. The Public Narratives Survey was carried out during September 2022 and results analysed in the following months. 104 people from a broad cross-section of New Zealand public were surveyed.
Political discourse on (Un)Healthy Housing in NZ
We were curious about why political discourse on (un)healthy housing was so limited. WRHHG commissioned research to understand more about how housing is talked about by politicians. This research analysed the Hansard record of discussions in parliament from August 2022 – August 2023.
Homes and Health in the News
This research looked into how news media in Aotearoa New Zealand talk about homes and health. The research analysed articles published in a range of media outlets over May-June 2023 and May-June 2024.
Related research
In New Zealand and internationally there are groups and organisations that are doing research about how to shift the narrative and framing of decent homes in order to build support for policy and practice shift. We’ve identified some related research you might find useful.
BRANZ commissioned research with The Workshop about how people think about housing performance – Homes that meet our real needs
Frameworks Institute (US) has a section of their website dedicated to talking about homes – frameworksinstitute.org/issues/housing
FrameWorks UK has research exploring how to talk about homes as the foundation for life – frameworksuk.org/resources/how-to-talk-about-homes
The Workshop is a New Zealand organisation that provided research, training and advisory services focused on changing how we think and talk about important social issues. They were a key partner in the Healthy Homes Communication Action Research project. The Workshop closed in January 2026 but their research and publications are still available.
Access The Workshop research and publications – theworkshop.org.nz/publications