25 May 2022 - New research highlights a role for neighbourhood planning in improving wellbeing for ageing populations
New research for the NIHR School for Public Health*, co-authored by CISL Global Sustainability Fellow Caroline Lee, explores the evidence, theory and policy developments relating to place-based planning for health and well-being. It considers how neighbourhood planning (NP) can support the advancement of the ageing-well agenda and well-being goals in rural areas of England.
The authors argue that NP can theoretically impact positively on age-friendly objectives (sensitive housing design, downsizing options, social and civic participation), but this is limited without greater incentives and political commitment to integrated policy making.
The authors warn that, without due attention, the advancement of ageing well and rural well-being through NP, will remain a largely missed opportunity.
The following recommendations are made:
How the success of NP is measured should go beyond simple quantitative metrics, which don’t account for quality of the built environment, provision of appropriate housing, environmental safeguards or benefits to well-being and social connections.
There is a need to consider the balance of power between the key actors involved in delivering plans. For example, enhanced community control and co-production between local government and communities, which may increase community participation and civic engagement.
There should be incentives for communities to engage and so it’s imperative to build the collective knowledge, skills and capacity to enable them to do so. Ways to do this could include removing overly technical language, reduction of bureaucracy and recognition of knowledge gaps. The question ‘What’s in it for me’ needs to be seen as legitimate, necessary and standard.
Future research into NP should evaluate how Plans deliver broader social value, such as through supporting ageing and well-being. The process and interaction of neighbourhood governance with wider planning should incorporate ‘health in all policies’. Following decades of cuts, collaborative approaches to supporting communities are increasingly recognised as essential both to decentralising decision making and to overcoming short-sighted implementation of government policy.
Lead author and Prince of Wales Global Sustainability Research Fellow Caroline Lee said:
“This research highlights that potential to achieve widely desired wellbeing goals for local communities is constrained by a lack of joined up thinking and action. We hope that national and regional policy-makers will acknowledge this missed opportunity, and act more creatively in future, looking beyond a narrow siloed policy focus, and harnessing existing mechanisms to positively influence population health and wellbeing.”
Click here to access the article via Liverpool University Press
* This study is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) School for Public Health Research (SPHR). The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care. The NIHR School for Public Health Research is a partnership between the Universities of Sheffield; Bristol; Cambridge; Imperial; and University College London; The London School for Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM); LiLaC –a collaboration between the Universities of Liverpool and Lancaster; and Fuse –The Centre for Translational Research in Public Health a collaboration between Newcastle, Durham, Northumbria, Sunderland and Teesside Universities.