Opportunities for preventing disease and improving the environment in our towns and cities are outlined in a government consultation response from experts from the University of Bristol.
Proposals for the new Environmental Outcomes Reporting mechanism (EOR) are included in the Levelling Up Bill, which will replace EU law on Strategic Environmental Assessment (for plans) and Environmental Impact Assessment (for projects). Researchers acknowledge the potential for improvement, but raise significant concerns with the current proposals, and calling for stronger integration of health, among other critical environmental considerations, when planning new developments.
The joint response from academics in Population Health Sciences and the Law School state that health should be a core part of EOR, not least by including ‘health’ in the title. In addition, they set out five further principles for the development of these outcomes, including the enshrining of ‘precautionary’ and ‘polluter pays’ principles. They also highlight the lack of cross-departmental working, assessment upstream of root causes issues, and effective methods for factoring in gaps in data.
The response was co-ordinated by TRUUD, a transdisciplinary research programme led by the University of Bristol, which aims to reduce non-communicable disease (such as cancers, diabetes, obesity, mental ill-health and respiratory illness) and health inequalities linked to the quality of urban planning and development.
TRUUD Research Director Daniel Black and University of Bristol Law School Lecturer Ed Kirton-Darling, the joint signatories said:
“Human health is dependent on our environment. Although health is acknowledged in the proposed reporting system for new developments, it isn’t comprehensively included and could result in worse outcomes.
“These changes present a unique opportunity to bring comprehensive consideration of planetary health upstream to prevent ill-health and its associated costs, and for mixed-use places where people will live and work, not just large single-use infrastructures. Our research supports how and why this can make a difference to long-term health in the UK.”
Read the cover letter, full response and summary: EOR Consultation Response
ENDS
- Tackling Root causes upstream of Unhealthy Urban Development (TRUUD) is a research project, based at the University of Bristol, looking at how urban centres can be planned to reduce health inequalities. It brings together experts from academia, industry and government to recommend and create new tools and processes for healthier cities. The project counts the cost of poor health, works with communities to communicate the issues they face and maps out the decision-making process in creating urban centres and includes two active case-studies in Bristol and Manchester. TRUUD is funded by the UK Prevention Research Partnership (UKPRP).
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