Research undertaken by Bristol University and the University of the West of England has found that planning authorities local plans do not consider health priorities.
Plans from seven local authority areas were analysed and 132 experts involved in urban development were interviewed in order to assess whether local planning policies considered the health implications of urban planning decisions.
They found that local plans lacked incentives to consider local health and wellbeing priorities. During interviews it was found that "health was not considered a priority and policies were often inconsistent or weakly implemented".
As a result of their findings the researchers have suggested more research on how policies are interpreted by developers would be beneficial. They are also calling for national reform to better promote and support the integration of health requirements in local plans, arguing that local plans are a great way of embedding the health benefits associated with quality of housing, transport, natural environments, food, and neighbourhood design.
Lead author on the research, and a research associate at Bristol Medical School, Rosalie Callway, commented: "The seven local plans we analysed were very good in many respects but there were clear opportunities where health requirements could be strengthened, especially to target the implementation gap where developers can compromise on conditions once planning consent has been achieved. A requirement for developers to create health management plans and improve local engagement in the design and ownership of new sites could help address this."
"The seven local plans we analysed were very good in many respects but there were clear opportunities where health requirements could be strengthened, especially to target the implementation gap where developers can compromise on conditions once planning consent has been achieved. A requirement for developers to create health management plans and improve local engagement in the design and ownership of new sites could help address this."
