The design toolkit covers the priorities for creating
healthier communities, including improved walking,
cycling and public transport links, with reduced carbon
emissions and better air quality. Master plans should
be based on an assessment of local health and care
needs, with the creation of integrated neighbourhoods
based on ‘tenure neutral’ housing and well-defined
public spaces.
The new guidance was commissioned by NHS England and
NHS Improvement to update the widely used Building for
Life 12 (B4L12), which Homes England requires
developers to commit to using as part of the tender
process for purchasing land. Reserved matter planning
applications must subsequently reflect the tender
proposals.
The agency has committed to using the new guidance in a
similar way and is currently carrying out a review of
the impact on design quality of schemes that were
procured under B4L12.
The new guidelines use the same 12-point structure as
its predecessor, with examples of good practice that
would add up to a green light and bad practice that
would earn a red light. However the authors make clear
the guidance is intended to prompt discussion rather
than as a tick-box scoring system.
Many local authorities include reference to the B4L12
in their Local Plans, and the new guidance is designed
to enable them to easily update their plans to link to
the new guidance. The new guidelines are also
consistent with the National Planning Policy Framework
(NPPF).
Sadie Morgan, Director of architecture firm, dRMM, and
a board member of Homes England, said:
“The new design guidance is a big step forward in
supporting placemaking for healthier, more integrated
communities where people want to live and spend time
together. We know that the existing guidance has
focused developers’ attention on high-quality design
and these new guidelines will build on that success.
“People’s homes and neighbourhoods have a huge impact
on their wellbeing and Homes England is committing to
using these new guidelines to ensure that new
developments encourage and enable better health.”
David Birkbeck of Design for Homes said:
“Building for a Healthy Life works best as the starting
point for getting developers, local authorities,
communities and other stakeholders to agree on key
aspects of a design, such as how new development will
connect to existing communities and how people will be
able move between the two.
“Its general focus has not changed significantly, other
than to promote the idea of walking and cycling more
short journeys. But the use of images helps explain the
desired for outcomes and help everybody identify shared
objectives.”
Dr Stefan Kruczkowski of Urban Design Doctor said:
“Building for a Healthy Life is full of photographs.
Everyone can see what good looks like and also what
type of things we need to avoid when designing new
places”.
Good design case study
Inholm is a sustainable mixed-tenure neighbourhood of
406 homes by Urban Splash that sets
pioneering townscape design principles for the wider
new town of Northstowe near Cambridge. The new
neighbourhood, which won a Housing Design Award in
2020, was master-planned by Proctor and Matthews and is
one of the first schemes from Homes England to
integrate the principles of Building for Life 12 into
the tender. Initiated by Homes England, Northstowe is
England’s most ambitious new town project since Milton
Keynes and will eventually grow to a community of
10,000 homes.
