National Government

To increase receptiveness for, and inclusion of, health and health inequalities in Whitehall urban development decision making.

The intervention team plans to use evidence and advocacy to ensure that health outcomes and health inequalities feature in the Government’s strategic planning on urban development. They are particularly interested to explore how the wider determinants of health can be incorporated into government thinking as part of the Levelling Up agenda. They will apply a systems perspective to explore how economic valuations of health can be used to incentivise and shape collective decision making. The intervention aims to:

• Increase health-centred resource allocation,
• Enhance recognition of the economic benefits of healthy urban development in relevant funding streams,
• Promote cross-departmental collaboration on healthy urban development, and

Encourage thinking about the wider determinants of health and health inequalities in the Levelling Up agenda.

We intend that our work should lead to:

• The inclusion of the HAUS tool in related government tools and processes,
• Greater coherence between government departments on health prevention, including Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, HM Treasury and Department of Health and Social Care, and
• Awareness of and advocacy for the HAUS tool amongst national level stakeholders.

Achieving these outcomes should contribute in the longer term to greater consideration for the wider determinants of health in urban development at the national level and greater prioritisation of health outcomes in urban development processes, including funding mechanisms.

Health in government housing and transport policies

What needs to happen to ‘level up’ public health?

What types of health evidence are persuasive in a complex system?

How value is considered and used in urban development with implications for the levelling up agenda

Revealing the health costs of the urban planning policy environment

Professor Sarah Aryes at the University of Bristol

Professor Nick Pearce at the University of Bath

Dr Geoff Bates at the University of Bath

Dr Rachael McClatchey at the University of Bristol

Dr Jack Newman at the University of Bristol