Boost your TIP: Health & Wellbeing
The Towns Fund Delivery Partner is sharing blog posts this week and next, covering topics that we believe can enhance your Town Investment Plans. This blog post focuses on Health & Wellbeing.
How we plan, design, build and live in our towns and our buildings has important implications for the health and wellbeing of the people that live there – the built environment is a key determinant of health and wellbeing. As we have supported towns with their Town Investment Plan (TIP) development, we have seen that most of the projects put forward within a TIP have the potential to positively influence health and wellbeing if the right steps are taken.
Explicitly setting out the potential influence a project can have on a range of health factors can help justify the case for a project and show links to wider town strategy. We recommend several resources to help towns think through the potential health and wellbeing co-benefits of their projects, including:
We have also prepared a more detailed evidence briefing note that sets out some key evidence for how the built environment impacts on health and wellbeing. This can be a helpful resource towns for who want to evidence and describe health and wellbeing impacts in their TIPs.
Based on our engagement with towns to-date, we have identified some common types of project which have an intrinsic health and wellbeing aspect to them. Below, we highlight how each type of project can have a wider impact on health and wellbeing.
Community Hubs
These serve as a community focal point and can take on multiple uses for various groups (including private, public and third sector). Community Hubs can support a range of activities and services including parent and toddler groups, exercise classes, childcare, employment support, library services, advice and information services, as well as supporting activities of local groups. These Hubs can help improve social wellbeing within the community by increasing social cohesion through improved social networks and interactions between community members. The different users of this space will also benefit from improved physical and mental wellbeing.
Active Travel
These serve as routes throughout the Town where motorised vehicles are minimised, through the encouragement of travelling by bicycle or foot. This improves the physical and mental wellbeing of the people engaging in physical activity and connects different areas of towns together, improving accessibility to services and amenities, social connection and wellbeing. Furthermore, the reduction in motorised vehicles improves air quality, which improves the health and wellbeing of the community as well as improving the environment through CO2 emission reduction.
Blue and Green Infrastructure
Green spaces and water can improve physical wellbeing through increased physical activity and improve mental wellbeing by connecting people to nature and can be used as part of therapeutic rehabilitation. The spaces can also improve social wellbeing through improving connections between communities and social interaction.
What next?
If you are developing projects for your TIP or business case in which you want to apply more health and wellbeing consideration, talk to your Town Coordinator or book an Expert Drop-in Hour with our Health and Wellbeing experts.