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Embedding health into local planning – it’s all about the data
Last October, before the government’s autumn budget, I wrote a blog making a case that the UK is at an inflection point in housing and...
Mar 217 min read
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Community-led campaigns are needed now more than ever
"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has” ...
Mar 135 min read
133


Is there a doctor in the house?
Does objecting to a new housing development in your local community, on the basis that no provision is made for new or expanded GP...
Feb 195 min read
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Healthy Happy Places – a collaborative initiative in the Northeast of England
There’s an area in the northeast of England where planners, health providers, arts organisations and local government are collaborating...
Feb 57 min read
129


Building an environment to age well in
With a new year comes a media spotlight on self-improvement, “healthy ageing” and “longevity” feature highly in both social and...
Jan 254 min read
126


Build for Health
Happy new year! Here’s hoping that sincere wishes for happiness and prosperity in 2025 are met with acknowledgment of some significant...
Jan 105 min read
260


Building Health Equity – the Role of the Property Sector in Improving Health
It wasn’t long ago that these words would look out of place in the same sentence. Why should property developers care about health, or...
Dec 17, 20243 min read
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World Toilet Day: Launching the London Loo Alliance
On Tuesday this week, World Toilet Day was celebrated across the world – laugh if you want, but it’s a long-established event led by...
Nov 21, 20243 min read
104

Health and Housing – are we at an inflection point?
Earlier this month the British Medical Journal published results of a survey by the Royal College of GPs on time spent on non-clinical...
Oct 26, 20243 min read
148


Changing Places: the Life Sciences industry in London
The Life Sciences industry is comprised of companies and organisations that research, develop and manufacture pharmaceuticals,...
Sep 10, 20243 min read
115


Planning is messy – but reducing it to binary choices will not give us the sustainable places we need
Earlier this year I visited Singapore and wrote about how government interventions have led to some remarkable outcomes on housing,...
Aug 14, 20244 min read
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Where health meets planning – lessons from Wales
As the new government tries to reconcile how to grow the economy by accelerating investment in new housing with a commitment to public...
Jul 29, 20244 min read
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CIL, health and health equity
Over the last year I’ve seen more and more reports of the tensions in local communities created by new housing development and the...
Jun 13, 20244 min read
103


Supermarkets and Healthy Placemaking
Earlier this month, Asda unveiled plans for a “transformational Mixed-Use Redevelopment of its ten-acre Park Royal site in North West...
May 29, 20243 min read
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The cost of adversarial practice
Earlier this month, the Home Builders Federation revealed that over the last three years, more than £50 million of taxpayer money was...
May 17, 20243 min read
139


Infrastructure First
Along with wet weather, April came in with a blast of Nimby v Yimby hot air. So far this month, we’ve learned that Keir Starmer has...
Apr 12, 20245 min read
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Can local initiatives increase the life expectancy of residents?
A report came out last week from the Kings Fund and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation giving new evidence to the link between areas of...
Mar 26, 20244 min read
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Life in a parallel universe
A parallel universe, also known as an alternate universe, parallel world, parallel dimension, or alternate reality, is a hypothetical...
Feb 16, 20244 min read
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Toilets are the talk of the town
2024 is starting off with a bang for London’s public toilet campaigners. As conversations came to a head (!) toward the end of last year...
Feb 7, 20245 min read
177


Planning across space, time and specialism: an interview with Michael Edwards
I first met Michael Edwards in 2021 through Just Space, a network of London-based community organisations which he and others set up in...
Jan 26, 20246 min read
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