Public Health

Housebuilders team up with NHS to build on Healthy New Towns schemes

NHS England has called on housing developers to put healthy living at the heart of future homebuilding by applying the lessons from the first Healthy New Towns schemes.

This month, NHS England will invite applications for housing developers and associations to join a national network that will see them work alongside health and care organisations to prioritise healthy living schemes in new housing developments – “above and beyond current practice.”

It is hoped that the network will help to improve the health of the nation by working in partnership with local NHS hospitals, community nurses, family doctors, local authorities and the voluntary sector to test new ideas, such as fitness adventure trails and tech-enabled homes to support elderly residents.

NHS England launched the Healthy New Towns programme in 2016 in partnership with Public Health England to explore innovative ways to tackle the biggest health and care challenges of the 21^st century, such as obesity, dementia and social isolation.

There are 10 sites taking part in the scheme, covering 60,000 new homes, and it has proven so popular that the design competition for the Halton site, for example, attracted bids from the USA, Spain, India and Japan.

Ideas so far have included safe play areas for children, ‘one-stop’ health hubs and digitally-monitored fitness programmes.

But NHS England has said that with the government targeting one million new homes, there is potential for the programme to reach far beyond the existing sites.

The NHS Five Year Forward View committed to improving the health of the population and recognised the need to build over 200,000 new homes in England each year, and the Department of Health has set a target of 26,000 homes to be built on NHS land.

Professor Jonathan Valabhji, national clinical director for obesity and diabetes at NHS England, said: “The Healthy New Towns programme has proved more popular than anyone could have predicted, uniting the NHS, housebuilders and local councils behind the goal of making us healthier and happier as a nation.

“Currently the demand to be part of the programme is outstripping supply so as the NHS turns 70, we are launching a new network of partners to ensure the great work done so far can have an even greater impact across the country and for years to come.”

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