Public Health White Paper - Implications for Urban Design

Proposed public health responsibilities for local authorities have been outlined in the white paper Healthy Lives, Healthy People.  Those relating to urban design include:

• obesity and community nutrition initiatives

• increasing levels of physical activity in the local population

• assessment and lifestyle interventions as part of the NHS Health Check Programme;

• accidental injury prevention;

• behavioural and lifestyle campaigns to prevent cancer and long term conditions;

http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/documents/digitalasset/dh_128333.pdf

Urban design must play a core role in improving public health, and practitioners are advised to be in the vanguard of the public health movement.