From the archive: 'Second time around – how re-uniting with public health can improve planning' (Jan-Mar 2003)

Each month, we're taking a journey back through the TCPA archive. This month's featured content, ‘Second time around – how re-uniting with public health can improve planning' (Town & Country Planning, Jan-Mar 2003) by Jon Talbot, calls for the planning sector to rediscover its historical link with public health: TCPA Journal No 1 January Page .14 - Town & Country Planning Association.

‘In recent years it has not been difficult to find planners who believe that health has nothing to do with the planning. The oft repeated mantra of the 19805 that planning is an activity solely concerned with ’land use’, as though this were an end in itself, has, for many, erased the collective memory of the spirit and purpose of planning. By rediscovering our connection with public health, there is an opportunity to reinvigorate planning itself.’

Talbot charts the evolving relationship between planning and public health, from the 1875 Public Health Act (which created wider, open streets, and, crucially, window openings on both sides of houses, allowing the free passage of ’fresh air’) to the election of New Labour and the first appointment of a Minister for Public Health in Britain.

As Talbot notes, ‘good health is not simply the absence of ill health; a healthy environment is not just one devoid of negative features.’ It is essential that our homes and neighbourhoods enable people to live healthy, happy lives. The TCPA’s modern Garden City Principles are a helpful framework for ensuring that new settlements offer high-quality affordable housing and locally accessible work in beautiful, healthy and sociable communities.

Further reading:

Read the full Journal article: TCPA Journal No 1 January Page .14 - Town & Country Planning Association

Read more about the TCPA’s Garden City Principles.

Read more about the TCPA’s work on healthy place-making, including our Campaign for Healthy Homes.