Cutting heart disease through improving housing in inner-city Bradford will be the aim of an innovative health programme.

The £200,000 scheme will target homes where cold and damp conditions are making people's heart health worse.

The Housing for Healthier Hearts scheme, which is financed by a national health improvement fund, will employ one health and one housing worker as a team.

Lynnette Throp, chief executive of Bradford City Primary Care Group (PCG), said the scheme had come from a similar idea put together by GPs and other board members last year.

"It was trying to formalise the link between housing and health in its broadest sense," she said.

"We picked on asthma for when doctors feel they have got to the end of everything they can do but housing is contributing to the problem."

That scheme did not get funding, but when the new health improvement fund for heart disease became available, the focus was shifted to target that disease in Bradford and a joint bid between the PCG and the health authority was successful.

Bradford has the sixth highest incidence of death and ill-health because of heart disease in the UK. The aims of the district's Health Improvement Programme (HImP) include cutting deaths from coronary heart disease by 20 per cent.

Miss Throp said: "Coronary heart disease is a major issue for the city of Bradford and particularly for the inner city."

Health professionals concerned about heart disease and housing will be able to refer patients to the project, where staff will help them to claim any grants which would improve their home by installing central heating, for example.

And if grants are not available, the team will have a £100,000 pot of money which could pay for home refurbishments to improve health.

It is likely to be targeted at Bradford's New Deal area of West Bowling, Marshfields and Park Lane.

The scheme is set to be discussed by board members of Bradford City Primary Care Group next week.

Miss Throp said she hoped the new team would recommend exactly where the scheme should be targeted to create most health benefit.

The project will link with a district-wide Energy Savings on Prescription scheme, which aims to improve insulation and heating for people whose health is put at risk by their housing.

e-mail: jan.winter

@bradford.newsquest.co.uk