By Andrew Mylius

Published by the government’s housing and regeneration agency, Homes England, ‘Building for a Healthy Life’ (BHL) provides an essential toolkit for street design for planners and developers. Published in August, BHL is an updated version of the 2020 version and delivers England’s most widely known and used design tool for creating places that are better for people and nature.

BHL has a strong emphasis on health outcomes, promoting design approaches to increase active travel and public transport, lower traffic speeds and add more sociable and welcoming public spaces for people.

“Non-communicable diseases cause 80% of deaths in the UK, most of which are recognised as preventable, and they cost the NHS and the UK economy billions every year,” says Daniel Black, research director at Tackling Root Causes Upstream of Unhealthy Urban Development, a publicly funded research programme that contributed to the new edition of BHL. “Poor quality urban environments are not solely responsible, but they do a great deal of harm. We need to consider the causes of the causes. BHL should help those involved in development to make neighbourhoods healthier.”

Publications suite

BHL sets out 12 considerations which have the potential to significantly benefit public health, including street characteristics, road safety and green and blue infrastructure. Half of the considerations relate to street design, which is covered in more detail in the updated technical guidance on new residential streets, ‘Streets for a Healthy Life’ (SHL). Both BHL and SHL are intended to be read alongside the Department for Transport’s ‘Manual for Streets’.

“Manual for Streets provides the overarching philosophy and principles for street design,” explains Annabel Keegan, technical director at specialist consultancy PJA. “BHL applies those principles within a broader design quality framework covering urban design, landscape and biodiversity net gain, architecture and streets.”

Keegan helped to shape BHL, working with lead authors David Birkbeck, founder and director of social enterprise Design for Homes, and independent urban designer Stefan Kruczkowski, as well as being lead author for the new edition of SHL. “We’ve taken a deep dive into nine case studies around England that show component parts that deliver healthier outcomes,” she says.

Design equality

Keegan states that BHL and SHL are both founded on the principle of “tenure-blind development and integrated neighbourhoods that reduce social stigma and support community cohesion by providing the same quality of design for private, social and council housing developments.”

A key feature of BHL and SHL is their red, amber and green scoring system for design quality, with clearly defined indicators for each colour. Designs judged red should be fundamentally rethought, those judged amber partially meet the BHL and SHL objectives but need improvement, while green designs are aligned. Support from accredited assessors to evaluate schemes is also available via a network of regional organisations used by Homes England to evaluate projects and funding bids.

“It is important to note that every example in SHL has been adopted by the local highway authority,” Keegan says. “When developers know how to produce a design that the local highway authority will adopt, they are more willing to invest in the desired design features. For local authorities, the guidance produces greater certainty that new streets will meet the design and maintainability standards they require for adoption.”

Keegan also emphasises the importance of early engagement and continuous dialogue throughout the planning, design and delivery process. “Everyone is aligned with the vision of creating healthier streets and neighbourhoods, but there’s a long way to go to make it normal practice. We need far stronger collaboration and the new guidance facilitates this.”

• To download Building for a Healthy Life, click here.

• For more information on Streets for a Healthy Life, click here.