From Housing to Health - Rethinking How We Build Communities

The gap in life expectancy between the UK’s most and least affluent areas now stands at around ten years. It is a stark reminder that health inequalities are deeply embedded in the way our towns and cities are planned and built. The NHS cannot bridge that divide alone. Among those shaping the built environment, there is growing recognition that creating better places means more than providing housing and infrastructure. It means designing environments that actively enable healthier, better educated and more resilient communities.  

Moving the Dial  

Recent updates to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) reflect a clear shift in this direction. It calls for “healthy, inclusive and safe places” that encourage social interaction, accessibility and active lifestyles. This is more than a policy box to tick. It is a strategic imperative.  

Health and wellbeing must be built into projects from the earliest stages, not bolted on after masterplans are complete. Yet in practice, local delivery often falls short. Pressures around viability, funding and coordination between sectors can mean that even well-intentioned schemes fail to deliver their potential once occupied.  

Designing for Positive Outcomes  

Embedding wellbeing into placemaking requires more than good design; it demands a commitment to understanding communities and planning for long-term stewardship. Early engagement helps ensure that features such as community gardens, green corridors or shared courtyards add real value and remain sustainable over time. Without governance models or maintenance plans, these assets can quickly become burdens.  

There is also a need to close the gap between ambition and implementation. Developers are increasingly receptive to ideas that promote healthy living, but without consistent policy frameworks, those ambitions can dissipate. Local plans that provide clarity, reward innovation and prioritise health-led design can drive better outcomes.  

Learning from Success  

Brighton and Hove offer a strong example of how local planning can work in practice. The city’s local plan embeds health and wellbeing through a hyperlocal approach, promoting walkable neighbourhoods, access to education and services, and protection of community spaces. This balance of vision and pragmatism provides a useful model for other authorities and development partners.  

Elsewhere, historical precedents show how design naturally supports wellbeing. New York’s early residential blocks, for example, encouraged incidental social encounters and daily movement through shared courtyards and connected streets. In the UK, the use of design codes can help revive that ethos, ensuring new developments prioritise not just aesthetics but how people live, move and connect within them.  

Progress?

Progress depends on aligning national policy with local action and fostering collaboration between planners, developers, and public health teams. When planning committees place greater weight on health, education and community outcomes, the benefits extend beyond social good.  

Healthier, better-connected neighbourhoods are also commercially stronger. They attract investment, sustain value and reduce long-term pressure on public services.  

Ultimately, designing with communities rather than for them is key. By embedding wellbeing, education and social value at the heart of placemaking, we move from building houses to shaping environments that give people the best chance to live well.

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