Health Impact Assessment (HIA)

Learn what a Health Impact Assessment is and start completing a Core HIA for your project.

Contents

Health impact assessment guidance matrix

Navigate to the section of the Health Impact Assessment Guidance Matrix by selecting the appropriate link from the following list:

 Housing

Planning Issue: 

  • Housing design and quality.
  • Accessible housing.
  • Healthy living.
  • Housing mix.Housing affordability.

Impact on Health and Wellbeing:

  • Lack of living space/ overcrowding.
  • Unhealthy living environment – daylight, ventilation, noise, injuries in the home.
  • Mental health issues from social isolation and fear of crime.
  • Excess deaths and ill health due to cold or overheating.
  • Accessibility issues for older people and people with disabilities.

Possible Mitigation/ Enhancement Measures:

  • Ensure a mix of housing types and tenures to cater for all population group. Some areas might require an increased provision for one type of population (e.g. bungalows for older people).
  • Provide affordable and social housing. Housing design and quality provided to a high standard - ensure appropriate size, ventilation, daylight and warmth standards.
  • Ensure that houses are placed appropriately in relation to the provision of green, open spaces, public services and infrastructure.
  • Develop adaptable homes to enable people to stay in their own homes as they age.

Useful refrences: 

GOV.UK: Fuel poverty statistics

Chartered Institute of Environmental Health: Housing and Health Resource

Housing Associasions' Chatitable Trust (HACT): Driving Value in Social Housing

GOV.UK: Better homes and bungalows for Britain's older people

Aging better: Homes for life – Guide to accessible homes

 

Diet and nutrition

Planning Issue: 

  • Local food growing.
  • Hot food takeaways.
  • Access to local healthy food shops.

Impact on Health and Wellbeing:

  • Opportunities for food growing.
  • Healthy diet Tackling food poverty.
  • Access to hot food takeaways increases risks of obesity and related diseases such as diabetes.
  • Limited access to affordable healthy and nutritious food linked to obesity and related diseases.

Possible Mitigation/ Enhancement Measures:

  • Provide communal and individual food growing opportunities e.g. allotments and community orchards. – link to housing standard requirements.
  • Influence letting decisions, and the design, space and size of retail units to ensure the provision of healthy food stores.
  • Community kitchens.
  • Access to local food shops that sell healthy affordable food.
  • Limit access to hot food takeaways e.g. limits on distances from schools or limits on the proportion within town and city centres.

Useful refrences: 

GOV.UK: The Eatwell Guide

GOV.UK: Health matters: obesity and the food environment

GOV.UK: Tipping the scales: case studies on the use of planning powers to restrict hot food takeaways

The Report - National Food Strategy

GOV.UK: Helping older people maintain a healthy diet: A review of what works

 

Physical activity

Planning Issue: 

  • Promoting and enabling the right conditions and environments for walking, wheeling and cycling.
  • Leisure provision.

Impact on Health and Wellbeing:

  • Physical inactivity, long term conditions including cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal (MSK) conditions.
  • Obesity.
  • Mental wellbeing.

Possible Mitigation/ Enhancement Measures:

  • Connected walking, cycling and wheeling routes-connecting destinations by a direct, legible and integrated network of cycling, wheeling and walking routes.
  • Creation and prioritisation of active travel (see transport, travel and connectivity).
  • Appropriate lighting, safety, maintenance, durability and signposting on all walking, cycling and wheeling routes and circular walkways.
  • Provide opportunities for recreation and physical activity for all population groups e.g. outdoor gyms or circular walks.
  • Consideration of gradient and resting places to promote inclusive walking.
  • Children’s play spaces.
  • Indoor leisure that is affordable.
  • Leisure infrastructure that meets community identified needs.
  • Accessible and inclusive changing facilities Use of technology to measure active success.
  • Parking for bikes (including adapted bikes).
  • Develop active buildings: internal and external layout, design and use of buildings promote opportunities for physical activity.

Useful refrences: 

Healthy Streets: Making streets healthy places for everyone

Urban design group: Building for a Healthy Life

Fields in Trust: Guidance for Outdoor Sport and Play

Play Scotland: The Play Return: A review of the wider impact of play initiatives

GOV.UK: Sporting Future

Sports England: Planning for health and wellbeing through sport and physical activity

Public Health England: Sports think tank

 

Transport, Travel and Connectivity

Planning Issue: 

  • Promoting walking and cycling.
  • Minimising car use.
  • Safety Connectivity.

Impact on Health and Wellbeing:

  • Physical inactivity, cardiovascular disease and obesity.
  • Mental illness from social isolation.
  • Noise and air pollution from traffic.

Possible Mitigation/ Enhancement Measures:

  • Provide safe and attractive walking and cycling routes.
  • Link the new cycle and pedestrian paths with wider networks to ensure that people can use them to access facilities and community hubs.
  • Ensure that people in new and existing developments are well connected through public transport.
  • Providing parking facilities at reduced cost outside of the town centre/a short distance away from facilities.
  • Provide cycling storage at destinations, and for flats and smaller dwellings.
  • Rapid EV charging points for cars and bikes.
  • Transport networks should connect communities.
  • Superior signage and street lighting. 

Useful refrences: 

Department for Transport: Transport, health and wellbeing 

Public Health England: Obesity and the environment: increasing physical activity and active travel

GOV.UK: Cycle infrastructure design LTN

GOV.UK: Designing and modifying residential streets: Manual for streets

Wheels for Wellbeing: A Guide to Inclusive Cycling

 

Employment and Income

Planning Issue: 

  • Local employment opportunities.
  • Healthy workplaces.

Impact on Health and Wellbeing:

  • Mental illness and poor self-esteem associated with unemployment and poverty.

Possible Mitigation/ Enhancement Measures:

  • Provide new employment opportunities for local people.
  • Ensure that people can access work places through variety of transport modes including walking, cycling and public transport.
  • Ensure that employment sites maintain a high standard of design e.g. provision of green spaces and sustainability standards to benefit the surrounding communities and employees.

Useful refrences: 

Public Health England: Local Action of Health Inequalities: Increasing Employment Opportunities and Improving Workplace Health

 

Education and Skills 

Planning Issue: 

  • School design and location.
  • Community learning.
  • The role of schools in community.

Impact on Health and Wellbeing:

  • Low educational attainment.
  • Poor community cohesion.
  • Low literacy levels amongst adults.

Possible Mitigation/ Enhancement Measures:

  • Connectivity between schools and local communities.
  • Opportunities for learning in the community.
  • Deploy health literacy strategies to raise the understanding of local decision making. 

Useful refrences: 

GOV.UK: Delivering schools to support housing growth

infed.org (the encyclopaedia of pedagogy and informal education): How schools can contribute to area regeneration

NHS England: Enabling people to make informed health decisions

 

Environment and Air Quality

Planning Issue: 

  • Open space. Green and blue space. Biodiversity. Views and landscaping.
  • Air quality. Contaminated land.
  • Waste.
  • Construction operations during the development stage including increased vehicle movement, noise etc.

Impact on Health and Wellbeing:

  • Physical and mental health benefits from access to nature and green space and water.
  • Poor environment leading to physical inactivity.
  • Poor air quality - lung and heart disease.
  • Disturbance from noisy activities.
  • Health risks from toxicity of contaminated land.
  • Disturbance and stress caused by construction activity Site safety.

Possible Mitigation/ Enhancement Measures:

  • Ensure provision of green spaces within developments. It is important that these are the right type of green spaces for the population group.
  • Ensure that green and open spaces are of good quality and safe.
  • Ensure that the new developments do not reduce existing access to green and open spaces for existing communities.
  • Provide attractive and landscaped developments – views of green space have a positive impact on health and wellbeing of communities.
  • Ensure that developments are free from environmental hazards.
  • Particular attention to locating homes for certain population groups e.g. care homes should be located away from noisy areas to limit the disturbance.
  • Arrange for waste disposal.
  • Locate new development in good air quality areas.
  • Ensure a low carbon dioxide emissions from new developments.
  • Implement best practice methods to minimise noise and dust pollution.
  • Ensure site security.
  • Limit the disturbance levels.
  • Adjust the vehicle movement and operation hours to benefit surrounding communities.
  • Inclusion of EV charging points for cars and bikes.
  • Promotion of Active Travel (see transport).

Useful refrences: 

Defra UK: Air Quality Management Areas

GOV.UK: Principal interventions for LAs: improving air quality and public health 

GOV.UK: Health matters: air pollution

The Lancet Commission: pollution and health

GOV.UK: Noise action plans: large urban areas, roads and railways (2014) 

Institute of Acoustics: Planning and Noise - Professional Practice Guidance on Planning and Noise 2017

GOV.UK: Noise Policy Statement for England

European Environment Agency (EEA): Good practice guide on noise exposure and potential health effects

Health and Safety Executive (HSE): Construction health risks: Key points

Health and Safety Executive: Construction 

GOV.UK: Improving Access to Green Spaces 2014

Parliament.UK: Living spaces: cleaner, safer, greener

 

Climate Change

Planning Issue: 

  • Flood risk. Overheating.
  • Pollution from car travel and building works.

Impact on Health and Wellbeing:

  • Mental well-being effect as people fearful of the re-occurring floods.
  • Excess summer deaths due to overheating.
  • Affects of pollution on population health.

Possible Mitigation/ Enhancement Measures:

  • Provide flood mitigation measures e.g. sustainable drainage.
  • Ensure that all developments provide green infrastructure.
  • Provision of street trees and other vegetation can reduce urban heat island effect.
  • Provide benches in shelter of trees.
  • Active travel infrastructure (see transport).
  • Adhere to green building standards (BREEAM).
  • Rapid EV Charging options for cars and bikes.
  • Regular, accessible public transport.

Useful refrences: 

Worcestershire Regulatory Services: Planning and pollution

Worcestershire Regulatory Services: Pollution

 

Community Safety

Planning Issue: 

  • Traffic management.
  • Lighting.
  • Safe play areas.

Impact on Health and Wellbeing:

  • Dark corners can encourage substance misuse.
  • Link to people perceptions of safety and impact on their wellbeing.
  • Prevention of accidents - road and traffic injuries.

Possible Mitigation/ Enhancement Measures:

  • Limit unlit/non-overlooked corners within developments and areas.
  • Ensure that communal spaces e.g. play areas and allotments are safe.
  • Provide traffic calming measures within developments.
  • Segregated walking and cycling routes.
  • Dropped curbs Safe access to buildings.

Useful refrences: 

Secured by Design: Design Guides 

GOV.UK: Modern Crime Prevention Strategy

The London school of economics and political science (LSE): Newburn Social Disadvantage and Crime

 

Equality and Social Cohesion

Planning Issue: 

  • Public buildings.
  • Public spaces.
  • Facilities and infrastructure accessible to all population groups.
  • Effective leadership and democracy.

Impact on Health and Wellbeing:

  • Loneliness and isolation.
  • Lack of social contacts.
  • Fear of crime.
  • Badly designed environments can constraint vulnerable groups from participating in everyday life.

Possible Mitigation/ Enhancement Measures:

  • Meeting spaces.
  • Attractive and landscaped environments to provide a sense of pride and increase people’s satisfaction and sense of wellbeing.
  • Communal spaces to support social cohesion e.g. communal allotments.
  • Accessible amenities.
  • Community centres and social infrastructure.
  • Community hubs for local amenities (police, CAB, doctor, library, café etc.).
  • 20 minute neighbourhoods.
  • Promotion of local businesses.

Useful refrences: 

The kings fund: Reimagining Community Services 

National archives: Community green: Using local spaces to tackle inequality and improve health

Changes UK:  A Charter for Community Development in Health

Town and Country Planning Association: Community Participation and Social Justice

GOV.Scot: Local Living and 20 Minute Neighbourhoods: Planning Guidance

 

Access to Public Services

Planning Issue: 

  • Health and social care.
  • Education.
  • Social infrastructure.
  • Public transport provision.

Impact on Health and Wellbeing:

  • Access to services for all.
  • Minimising health inequalities.
  • Promoting positive mental illness and freedom from social isolation.
  • Digital inclusion.

Possible Mitigation/ Enhancement Measures:

  • New developments located in sustainable locations with access to healthcare services such as GPs, education establishments and social infrastructure such as churches, community centres and local food shops.
  • Accessible amenities that can be accessed by walking and cycling routes.
  • Digital connectivity. 

Useful refrences: 

NHS England: Improving access for all: reducing inequalities in access to general practice services

NHS England: What we mean by digital inclusion

Good things foundation: the Digital Exclusion Risk Index