Health impact assessment in spatial planning in England

ABSTRACT

Spatial planning decisions have public health consequences. It is therefore important that the potential health impacts of plan-making and planning applications are carefully considered. Health impact assessment (HIA) is a tool to identify the health impacts of a project or policy and to develop recommendations to maximise the benefits, minimise harm and reduce health inequalities. This commentary provides an overview of a new ‘HIA in spatial planning guide’ for local authority public health and planning teams in England. Prepared by Public Health England’s Healthy Places Team, the Guide aims to increase and support the adoption of local HIA policy.

KEYWORDS:

• Health impact assessment
• spatial planning
• healthy urban planning

Disclosure statement

The authors of this commentary are the same authors of the Public Health England health impact assessment in spatial planning guide to which this commentary refers.

Notes

1. The future of Public Health England is set out in the UK Government’s policy paper published in September 2020; The future of public health: the National Institute for Health Protection and other public health functions (Department of Health & Social Care 2020). The ‘Health impact assessment in spatial planning’ guide will remain in the public domain and supported by organisations who contributed to its development, it will remain relevant to the practitioner audience and researchers interested in health impact assessment. Public Health England’s work will continue as the new National Institute for Health Protection is formed. Throughout this time of change Public Health England will continue to work with partners to protect and improve the nation’s health.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Carolyn A. Sharpe

Public Health England’s Healthy Places Team has been designed to support the development of healthy places and homes with the aim of ensuring that health inequalities are considered and addressed when planning, developing and improving the built environment and in enabling people to have a place they can call ‘home’. The Healthy Places team is based in the Priorities and Programmes Division of the Health Improvement Directorate. The programme works in partnership with local and national partners on a wide range of activities and is a hub for Public Health England’s activities on ‘place’. Read more about the team https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/phe-healthy-places.