In England, the planning and public health systems are nationally structured to create the policy opportunities for healthy place-making in local government. Yet, there is a frequent failure to create healthy communities that supported by infrastructure and housing that supports equity, sustainability and inclusion. There are many reasons for this, including a narrow focus on housing delivery above issues of quality.
With collaborators working across English local and national government organisations, we wrote an analysis in the British Medical Journal outlining the opportunities to increase healthy urban planning in England.
Key recommendations from the analysis include:
- ‘Built environments are designed and developed using guidance from quality assured sources such as Public Health England and the Town and Country Planning Association
- Person centred design is favoured over an infrastructure led plan to ensure places support healthy, active communities
- The approach to person centred design is strengthened by ensuring that local health needs are linked to the planning policy process, led by integrated care systems
- A stronger focus is placed on prevention and promoting the conditions for good health within all built environment plans, designs, and developments.’
This collaboration and the resulting paper was developed following a Salzburg Global Seminar in partnership with Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. A number of other papers and blogs were written by global practitioners and academics working in healthy and equitable urban planning.
References
McKinnon, G., Pineo, H., Chang, M., Taylor-Green, L., Strategy, A.J., Toms, R., 2020. Strengthening the links between planning and health in England. BMJ 369. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.m795