Using health evidence to inform planning

Local Plans and policies – including neighbourhood plans – should be informed by good evidence, including evidence about the health of the local community. However, planners and neighbourhood planning groups are often unsure where to find relevant public health evidence, or how to use it. The TCPA and UWE (University of the West of England) were commissioned by Public Health England to create a suite of resources to help find and use health evidence in planning.

The guides were informed by workshops held with councils and communities in North Yorkshire, Hull, Gloucestershire and Worcestershire.

The introductory report, ‘Getting Research into Practice: a resource for local authorities on planning healthier places‘ can be downloaded from Public Health England’s website here.

In addition, the TCPA, working with UWE and the local councils, has produced four detailed guides showing how to find and use health evidence to create specific planning resources, which can be downloaded below.

For information about how these resources were created, the research methodology used, and findings and recommendations that came out of the research, see the UWE website here.