Health outcomes are ‘largely absent’ when it comes to local government guidance on housing supply and transport policies, new research has revealed.
Researchers at the University of Bath and University of Bristol examined housing supply and transport policies to establish how written guidance for local government and developers support or hinder health objectives.
They found that in 38 UK policy documents since 2010 health is ‘largely absent’ and when it is included it is assumed to be an indirect outcome of delivering other policy areas such as improving the economy or increasing housing supply.
Dr Geoff Bates, the University of Bath’s Institute for Policy Research, said: ‘The UK government has tools to embed and enforce health considerations such as in the local planning system which is highly centralised with nationally set regulations and targets. We found that while there is much justification to support housing supply and transport policies, health is largely absent in importance.
‘We can see that national urban development policy is falling short in setting the context needed to support the creation of healthier places in the mission to build 300,000 homes per year across England during the next decade.’
