Healthy Urban Planning

in
Brighton & Hove

Terry Blair-Stevens & Rob Fraser

Brighton and Hove - the place
 Brighton & Hove – the place

Development Pressures
• 11,000 new homes by 2026
• All on previously developed
land

Travel issues
• 28,000 people travel to
the city to work everyday
• 33,000 people travel from
the city to work
Brighton & Hove –Healthy city issues
Deprivation
•Low wage economy
•12% households overcrowded
•Av household 2.09 persons

Most successful South

Coast Town
Delivering 600 homes
per year
 Healthy Cities Healthy Urban Planning
Meeting the 9 HUP principles

1. Human Health as a key facet of sustainable development

2. Cooperation between planning and health agencies
3. Cooperation between the public, private and voluntary
sector
4. Community consultation and empowerment
5. Political Commitment at the highest level
6. Health integrated plans and policies
7. Health integration for macro to micro
8. A comprehensive approach to the determinants of health
9. Evidence based planning for Health
 Healthy Cities Healthy Urban Planning
Meeting the 9 HUP principles

1. Human Health as a key facet of sustainable development

• Acceptance that planning is a determinant of health. Agree to
make health explicit in planning policies. Support through joint
training.
• Agreement in principle to submit all planning and transport plans
to HIA.
• Reinforce Health criteria in Sustainability Appraisal
2. Cooperation between planning and health agencies
• Key role of Healthy City lead officers in maintaining liaison.
• Partnership working in Urban Planning through Healthy Urban
Planning steering group.
Joint Working: PCT/Planning
Joint training
 Joint Working: PCT/Planning
Training

• Awareness Training for Planning Policy and

Development Control staff. Acceptance that planning is a
determinant of health. Agreement to make health explicit
in planning policies. Aim: acceptance of need to plan for
health.
• HUP Masterclasses for staff in PCT and Planning for
those involved in provision of evidence, plan making or
carrying out or supporting HIA – (about 80). Aim: to
facilitate joint working (introduce staff to each other,
understand each other’s agendas, what information
available and limitations of powers we can use).
• Training in HIA for those carrying out or managing HIA /
SA (about 20) Aim: how to do it and who can contribute
 Joint Working: PCT/Planning
Sharing the same agenda

• Public health is where planning started

• Planning is concerned with addressing inequalities
• Economic and environmental inequality has health
implications….
• Making ‘Explicit’ health considerations
 Joint Working: PCT/Planning
The HUP steering group

• Membership includes Public Health, Urban Planning, Economic

development, Transport Planning, Sustainability
• Conduit for liaison PCT and Council
• Considers how Healthy City agenda can be further integrated into
Council’s processes (eg: agreement that Council’s own
developments will be HIA assessed)
• Monitors progress on developments and and identifies opportunities
for health interventions in plan making.
• Primary Care Trust will monitor how the new policies meet the
Phase IV HUP objectives
 Healthy Cities Healthy Urban Planning
Meeting the 9 HUP principles

3. Cooperation between the public, private and

voluntary sector
• Local Strategic Partnership allows strategic aims to be agreed
jointly by all these sectors. Joint working arrangements such as the
Healthy City Partnership in place to help deliver the strategies
4. Community consultation and empowerment
• The new local planning process requires extensive consultation
prior to developing policy, at the drafting stage and at final draft
stage
• Demonstrating Local Development Framework documents and
Strategic objectives are rooted in the community Strategy.
 Healthy City Organisation :

Local Strategic Partnership

(2020 Community Strategy)

Housing Healthy City Sustainability

Partnership

Transport Social Care

City Planning Health

 Healthy City Delivery :

Local Strategic Partnership

(2020 Community Strategy)

Stop Smoking Healthy City Active Life

Style
Partnership

Food Healthy
Partnership Ageing
Healthy Urban
Planning
 What the Groups were:
Local Strategic Partnership 2020

Community
& Public
Voluntary Sector
Sector

Resident Business
& Community Sector
Networks

Central
& Regional City Council
Governments
Local
Interest
 Healthy Cities Healthy Urban Planning
Meeting the 9 HUP principles

5. Political Commitment at the highest level

• The Local Strategic Partnership has representatives from the
leadership of local organisations including political leadership of
the Council.
• The Chair of the Primary Care Trust and representative of
Leadership of the Council sit on the Healthy City Partnership.
6. Health integrated plans and policies
• Making health issues explicit in planning policies is essential.
• Integrating the Healthy City objectives from the outset of the new
Local Development Framework plan making process.
• We agreed to subject all new major planning policy documents
to HIA.
Applying Healthy Cities principles to planning our
LDF
 Healthy Cities Healthy Urban Planning
Meeting the 9 HUP principles

7. Health integration for macro to micro

• We intend to test all major projects against HIA and all new future
development against the new plan which will be subjected to HIA.
Government guidance supports this approach and suggests this will
become best practice.
8. A comprehensive approach to the determinants of health
• By working with other partners on the Healthy City agenda, the
new Local Development Framework Documents will help deliver
health benefits for a number of associated organisations and
departments (Housing, Sustainability, Transport).
Brighton & Hove –Healthy City
 Healthy Cities Healthy Urban Planning
Meeting the 9 HUP principles

9. Evidence based planning for Health

• Using PCT data to support policies in the Core strategy.
• Referencing positive health impacts of policies where they are a
known determinant of health.
• Extending SA of policy documents to specifically include Health
impacts.
• We intend to work closely with other ‘environment’ and ‘health’
partner organisations to monitor Air Quality and Community Safety.
The Primary Care Trust will monitor how the new policies meet the
Phase IV HUP objectives.
• We will report the outcomes of this monitoring through the new
Annual Monitoring Report process required by our new plan
making process.
Brighton & Hove –Healthy City
 Joint Working: WHO

• Achieved WHO Healthy City designation in July 2004

• Phase IV (2003-2004)

• Building evidence e.g. how design increases physical activity

• Public health officers involved in technical assessment of planning

proposals

• Development of health considerations checklist

• HIA on major developments e.g. Inner Marina and Open Market.

 Applying HIA to large developments

• How we pick them - HUP group 'early warning‘

• How to persuade people to do HIA (we have not got this right yet)
for early ones it was intended to be a supporting document in
favour of development
• Relevance to planning - it feeds into EIA it expresses positive
arguments supporting sustainable developments
 some lessons we have learned
for Planning:

• PCT evidence is relevant, persuasive and more obviously 'real' to

communities - it highlights a number of equalities issues
• Equalities target groups identify strongly with the clear link
between economic and environmental factors and health
• HIA is easily incorporated into SA requiring only a slight
enhancement over that required anyway
• Joint working with PCT and LSP keeps Community Strategy and
Core Strategy bound together
• Health authorities are significant developers themselves
• Health authorities have different and relevant consultation contacts
 some lessons we have learned
for PCT:

• Learning the language of planning

• Planners can do ‘public health’/ planning is public health
• Demystifying public health – explaining the language of public
health
• Visible consideration of health issues in current strategies and
planning docs
• Impact of raised expectations and meeting demand – they know
we’re here!
Brighton & Hove –Healthy City