Roy Lilley knows a lot about healthcare provision in the UK, and he shares it four times a week with relevance, facts and humour through a widely distributed newsletter. His knowledge and insight come from experience leading two health authorities, running the NHS Managers network and supporting the Institute of Health and Social Care Management. He's also been an active participant in local government, having served as Councillor and Mayor in Surrey Heath Borough. And he w

Over the last six months I’ve written twice about data centres, highlighting both the challenges and opportunities that they present to local communities and the trends that are developing in the discourse around them. The most visible and audible trend -- community-led resistance to data centres – is accelerating -- and, according to The Economist, the backlash is just getting started: "The fiercest fights so far have been in America, where protests against data centres h

The record heat in the UK last week inspired lots of discussion about its impact on our health – with particular focus on how our built environment – homes, workplaces, schools, hospitals and transport infrastructure - are ill-suited to extreme heat and harming our health. This has led to animated discussion on the need for air conditioning in our buildings, with heated (!) exchanges over why we don’t have air conditioning in UK homes and, inevitably, to our overly regulat

This week saw the highest recorded temperatures for May in the UK -- 34.8C on Bank Holiday Monday, surpassed on Tuesday at 35.1C. Both temps were recorded at Kew Gardens in the London Borough of Richmond-upon-Thames where, I can assure you having taken the photo above, residents were not that bothered. Richmond abounds in green spaces, blue spaces, social spaces and sporting spaces and, not surprisingly, has one of the highest rate of healthy life expectancy in the countr

Last week’s elections created a new patchwork of political control of local authorities across the country, reflecting our emerging five-party system. London is particularly striking in its new patchwork comprising all of the five parties, and most noticeably the number of Labour-controlled councils reduced from 21 to 8. While its all change for councils and their leadership, the challenges facing local authorities remain distinctly unchanged. And in the case of public infr

Earlier this year, I decided to push my boundaries in listening to locals, and agreed to stand in the May local elections as a Conservative candidate for Richmond Council in SW London, representing the area where I live, Mortlake & Barnes Common. I had three motivations. First, I live adjacent to a major redevelopment site (the largest in Richmond and one of the largest in London) which has finally received planning consent after more than a decade of negotiation and a seri

I launched Build for Health last year to link up practitioners from multiple disciplines who, firstly, supported the principle that our health is impacted by the built environment, and, secondly, were motivated to change their practice to accommodate this. It followed a programme of research from the Institute of Health Equity , which gave evidence to the role of the property sector in supporting health & wellbeing. Acknowledging the scale, influence and resources of t

It’s a rare day now when we don’t see something in our news feeds about AI and, increasingly, the infrastructure required to power its development and deliver its benefits. The AI Opportunities Action Plan produced last year for the government set out targets to ensure the UK can lead in this frontier technology, and one year on many of these have or are being achieved . A central feature of this plan is the development of data centres across the country – and as I argu

In response to the housing crisis facing London and across the country , a growing number of voices are calling for an uptick in housing density . A popular approach to this discourse is “ gentle density ”, a form of residential development which sits between high-rise, urban, apartment-style developments and low-rise, suburban housing. Advocates include Create Streets , who argue that gentle density is the 'missing middle' of place-making—a network of beautiful streets

What’s the largest charitable organisaton in the UK? Measured by assets, it’s the Wellcome Trust , whose mission is to “ bring together expertise from across science, innovation and society to generate new knowledge and find equitable solutions to improve life, health and wellbeing” The Wellcome Trust is funded by the returns from its massive, diverse investment portfolio , which originated from a gift in the will of pharmaceutical entrepreneur Sir Henry Wellcome, making

Since launching Build for Health a year ago , I’ve been impressed with the quantity and quality of practitioners from across the built environment and health sectors that are actively exploring links between our built environment and our individual and collective health. Our first workshop in July demonstrated the breadth and depth of experience that these people bring to the challenge of building for health, and their commitment to seeing ideas made manifest. It's been

News about data centres seems to be everywhere in recent weeks and months, reflecting a spectrum of views ranging from their absolute necessity as critical infrastructure to their inherent threats to our environment and wellbeing . There are approximately 500 data centres in the UK , with growth projected at 20% over the next five years , driven by AI and cloud computing. The Times reported last weekend that nearly 100 centres are currently going through planni

Two weeks ago over 1000 people gathered at the O2 centre in London to launch a growth agenda for the UK. Looking for Growth (LFG) describes itself as “a political movement to push Britain out of decline. We build, we pressure politicians, we influence policy, we organise, co-ordinate and improve Britain, bit by bit”. Amongst speeches and panel discussions delivered over the course of the evening, an announcement was made about a separate initiative which embodies the ambit

One of the reasons for launching Build for Health earlier this year and holding its first workshop in July was to work with a collective of built environment practitioners to forge consensus on practice in developing places that support good health. During this workshop and through our LinkedIn group we’ve shared and explored frameworks , tools , data , and design codes that have been developed to support practitioners in building for health. Implementation ha

Following the government’s cabinet reshuffle earlier this month, the new Housing minister, Steve Read, issued a “call to arms” to “build...

The Aylesbury estate is in the London Borough of Southwark. It was built between 1963 and 1977, and is one of the largest public housing...

It’s been a hot summer across Europe and much of North America, and this has generated lots of discussion about the impact of heat on our...

Last week the BBC reported from Bath that a lack of public toilets in the city has left elderly people in tears and pushed customers...

Always on the lookout for redevelopment projects that align housing and placemaking with improving health outcomes, I was intrigued to...

On a beautiful summer evening last Tuesday, fifty-odd leaders and practitioners from the built environment, health provision, public...