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

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

Last week the Soho Society, a civic society “for all the people that have Soho in their lives” voted at its AGM for a new licensing mandate, meaning it will challenge all new applications for bars and restaurants in the area, including renewals of existing licences. It will also object to any venue that wishes to open beyond “core hours”, which Westminster council decrees end at 11pm. The society claims the area in central London has seen an intensification of nightlife and

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

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

As we mark the centenary of the launch of the Peckham Experiment, I am reminded of a line from Alexandre Dumas in The Count of Monte Cristo : “Ideas never die, Sire, and, though they may slumber for a time, they wake up stronger than when they fell asleep." In July 2023 I wrote about the Peckham Experiment , having learned about it while seeking evidence to support appeals to MPs for their vote on the Healthy Homes Bill . This was a Private Member’s Bill developed by th

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

When the NHS announced its ten-year Health Plan last summer , it revealed its intention to shift healthcare from hospitals to communities by establishing localised "Neighbourhood Health Services". According to the plan, these would “create integrated, multidisciplinary teams to provide proactive, preventative, and personalized care closer to home, focusing on early intervention, digital tools, and tackling health inequalities to keep people healthier longer and reduce hospi

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

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...

At a time of change and uncertainty in housing, planning and health policy, robust data gives us the anchor we need to understand what is...

The push for economic growth continues to dominate government policy across multiple agendas, including climate and housing, and local...