Putting Health into Place: NHS England’s Healthy New Towns programme

“It is essential to help prevent ill health by planning, designing and developing higher quality places.”

The King’s Fund reported last year on a future approach - NHS England’s Healthy New Towns - which is a three year programme to look at how health and wellbeing can be planned and designed into new places.

It brings together partners in housebuilding, local government, healthcare and local communities to demonstrate how to create places that offer people improved choices and chances for a healthier life.

Places that were planning new large scale housing developments were invited to take part in the programme. Ten were selected to be ‘demonstrator sites’ to test innovation and explore possibilities. These sites represent a range of locations and explore different challenges.

The programme’s three priorities are:

• planning and designing a healthy built environment
• creating innovative models of healthcare
• encouraging strong and connected communities.

The final report from NHS England will be published in spring 2019.

This King’s Fund leaflet featured in this briefing is an introduction to the key messages in the programme. It includes several case studies illustrating the principles.