5Sustainable Cities
127.This chapter will focus on planetary health challenges from the growth and modernisation of cities, looking at how Government Departments should promote sustainability in cities and consider the inter-related challenges posed by urban living.
Cities and urban living trends
128.The UN estimates around 55 per cent of the world’s population lived in urban areas in 2018. This is expected to rise to 60 per cent by 2030 and 68 per cent by 2050. Most of this increase in urban populations is expected to occur in Asia and Africa, with India, China and Nigeria accounting for 35 per cent of the projected growth of the world’s urban population by 2050.217 The number of cities worldwide with one million or more inhabitants was 548 in 2018–by 2030 it is projected to be 706. The number of cities with over 10 million inhabitants (“megacities”) is expected to rise from 33 in 2018 to 43 in 2030.218
129.The UK’s population is expected to grow from 66 million people today to 73 million by 2040.219 As well as increasing, it is also growing older which presents challenges for policy makers and planners.220 The World Bank estimates that 83 per cent of the UK’s population lived in urban areas in 2017.221
130.A number of actions need to be taken to manage the challenges that urbanisation poses to environmental, and thus human health. The 2015 Rockefeller Foundation–Lancet Commission noted that:
The growth in urban populations emphasises the importance of policies to improve health and the urban environment, such as through reduced air pollution, increased physical activity, provision of green space, and urban planning to prevent sprawl and decrease the magnitude of urban heat islands.222
Health and urban living
131.Urban areas can produce specific physical- and mental-health challenges related to air quality, crowding, noise, lack of green spaces and physical inactivity.
132.According to a 2017 report on rural health by the Local Government Association and Public Health England, “Overall, health outcomes [in England] are more favourable in rural areas than in urban areas”.223 The report states:
Average life expectancy is higher [in rural areas], infant mortality is lower and the number of potential years of life lost (PYLL) from common causes such as cancers, coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke is lower. […] Life expectancy has been highest in districts with at least 80 per cent of their population living in rural settlements and larger market towns. Men born in these areas in 2008/10 were expected to live over two years longer than men born in major urban areas, and women were expected to live one and half years longer than women born in major urban areas.224
133.Health problems that have been associated with urban environments include non-communicable diseases such as cancer, diabetes and asthma and mental-health problems such as depression.225 Our 2018 report on heatwaves found that the rise in average temperatures combined with the urban heat island effect—urban areas being significantly warmer than their surrounding rural areas due to human activities—is likely to increase heat-related deaths from 2000 per year today to around 7000 per year by the 2050s.226
Environment and cities
Climate breakdown
134.Cities contribute to climate change. Rachel Huxley, C40 Cities, told us that cities “occupy only 2 per cent of the [global] land area but they are responsible for 70 per cent of the [global] emissions and that increases when you include consumption”.227 She noted that if policies on tackling climate change were right, then, “we are not just averting the global catastrophe of climate change, but we are creating much more liveable, healthy, prosperous cities”.228
Poor air quality
135.City design and lifestyles contribute to poor air quality. The impact of pollution is a problem for both human and environmental health, with issues ranging from asthma to diabetes, and have an estimated mortality impact of up to 40,000 deaths a year.229 Estimates of the costs to society and the economy exceed £22 billion per year.230 Actions to limit air pollution not only reduce the health burden of poor air, but bring co-benefits and improve well-being through incentivising outdoor activities like walking and gardening which, in turn, can help mitigate climate change.231
136.We heard that indoor air pollution was becoming a major area of concern. Dr Anastasia Mylona from the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) said that “air pollution and urban heat island effect are some of the issues that we face today, but they are projected to be even worse. This will have an effect on people’s indoor air quality, so in their homes and in the places where they work”.232
137.In our joint report with three other House of Commons Select Committees, Improving Air Quality, published March 2018,233 we noted the impacts of poor air quality on human health. We recommended the introduction of a new Clean Air Act to improve existing legislation and enshrine the right to clean air in UK law. The Government subsequently published the Clean Air Strategy 2019 (January 2019), in which it stated that: “We plan to set out our ambitions in primary legislation”.234 The last Clean Air Act was in 1993.235 The Strategy stated that: “New legislation will create a stronger and more coherent framework for action to tackle air pollution. This will be underpinned by new England-wide powers to control major sources of air pollution, in line with the risk they pose to public health and the environment, plus new local powers to take action in areas with an air pollution problem”.236
138.We look forward to the introduction of air quality legislation as soon as possible, and encourage the Government to draft it with cross-cutting planetary health outcomes in mind. We recommend that any new legislation on clean air brings UK legal limits for air pollution in line with WHO recommended limits (10ug/m³).
Urban planning
139.Integrated urban planning is essential to ensure better planetary health outcomes. For example, Dr Mylona, CIBSE, told us that: “it is a very important aspect, the urban planning, at this point. If we manage to improve the outdoor environment, opening windows will get the fresh air that we are supposed to be getting as well, just to go back to the point that there are multiple benefits in looking at these different aspects of urban planning”.237 Integrated urban planning should also limit urban sprawl. Professor Mike Davies pointed out the problems with a lack of integrated planning policy:
In the absence of effective policies to reduce environmental footprints, rapid urbanisation impinges on peri-urban arable land historically used for agriculture. Peri-urban green space, which supports biodiversity and ecosystem services such as flood protection as well as assisting in passive cooling of the cities is also vulnerable to urban expansion.238
140.In addition, UPSTREAM239 recommended that the UK Government should “commission a full examination of the urban planning and development system with a focus on aligning those in control of planning and development with planetary health objectives”.240
141.There has been a call for sustainable urban planning, to promote healthier lifestyles with cities built “clean by design”.241 Professor Cosford, Public Health England, told us that “Whenever a new community is developed, it has to have all the elements of clean housing, good quality housing, but also walking/ cycling routes, ways of making that the easy choice”.242
Transport networks and urban planning
Transport and planetary health
142.We were told that: “The transport sector is the largest consumer of energy in the UK, and relies heavily on unsustainable fossil fuel energy”.243 Transport is a major contributor to climate change and air pollution, which contributes to poor environmental outcomes (for example, impacts on biodiversity).244
143.We were also told that cars contribute significantly to poor human health outcomes. Professor Mike Davies explained that:
Motorised urban private travel also contributes to reduced physical activity and increased risk of obesity, poorer mental health, social severance and increased risk of injuries which could be prevented by the use of (affordable) public transport or active travel (walking and cycling), though care is needed to ensure improved separation of walking and cycling routes from road traffic to reduce injury risks.245
144.We also heard that: “Even if we switched to entirely zero-emission vehicles, we would still get a huge amount of particulate matter from tyre and brake wear”.246 There was strong support from witnesses for a reduction in the use of private vehicles in cities, and as Rachel Huxley, C40 Cities, stated, it would require “bold, ambitious policies”.247
Transport and sedentary lifestyles
145.Cars are a contributor to sedentary lifestyles, and the rise in non-communicable diseases, like obesity and diabetes. The LSHTM told us: “on average, 21 per cent of men and 25 per cent of women are classified as inactive”.248
146.In order to reduce poor health outcomes, witnesses encouraged “active transport”.249 Professor Michael Davies et al stated that “Increased physical activity from urban walking and cycling could bring major health benefits and avert costs to the NHS amounting to about £17bn over 20 years”.250
147.There are ways in which cycling can be encouraged. Rachel Huxley, C40 Cities, mentioned that in New Orleans, by painting on the roads, it sends a message that: “as a cyclist you are meant to be here, and you are welcome here”.251 However, painted road markings in the UK have been criticised by Britain’s cycling and walking commissioners, describing them as “gestures” which do not deliver improved safety for cyclists.252 This view is supported by recent research showing on-road bicycle lanes have the effect of reducing passing distance from motor vehicles, making roads less safe for cyclists.253
148.Walkers, cyclists, and car drivers are exposed to air pollution, with research suggesting that the risks are highest for those in cars. A Lancet review of air pollution found that car commuters lost up to one year in life expectancy more than cyclists.254 Rachel Huxley, told us that: “The concern that as a cyclist you are exposed to more pollution is not necessarily always true and the benefits you gain from physical activity outweigh the pollution risk by an order of magnitude”.255
149.Professor Blythe, Chief Scientific Adviser at the Department for Transport (DfT), told us that one of the Department’s goals included: “trying to persuade people to use their vehicles less and to use more sustainable forms of transport such as public transport, walking and cycling more”.256 Kit Malthouse, then Minister, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, told us about Government initiatives including the Healthy New Town Standard,257 alongside the Department of Health and Social Care; the Manual for Streets 3 Guidance;258 and the Walking and Cycling Investment Strategy,259 alongside the DfT.260 He also told us that there is a “general obligation” on local authorities, through the National Planning Policy Framework, to use their planning policies to encourage sustainable modes of transport.261 Dr Thérèse Coffey, DEFRA, told us that:
Councils are producing walking and cycling strategies. They use things like the air quality grant fund. That is also what we have done to help with certain schemes. A lot of money has gone from the DfT in particular to areas they have nominated as cycle cities. There is also wider funding available from the DfT for councils to bid for.262
150.Daniel Black and Associates pointed to a good example of urban planning, which ensured that green spaces and active transport networks were combined:
The outstanding example that urban planners have been pointing to for a long time is the Vauban district of Freiburg in southern Germany, an urban extension of 5,000 inhabitants where just 16 per cent [of people] use a car and only 40 per cent of people own a car, and where walking, cycling and use of public transport is at 75 per cent (Grant et al, 2008,263 Hall, 2014264). The low car usage and significant green infrastructure means it is also quiet and positive for mental health despite it being a high-density urban environment.265
Buildings and urban planning in the UK
151.Poor quality housing has significant harmful impacts on public health and life expectancy. For example, Professor Yvonne Rydin, UCL, told us that: “The review that we did suggested that low-quality housing in the UK cost the National Health Service £1.4 billion in first-year treatments”.266 We also heard that UK building stock was a major contributor to national greenhouse gas emissions. Professor Michael Davies wrote that: “In the UK in 2017, direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from buildings were 85 MtCO₂e and buildings were responsible for a further 48 MtCO₂e of indirect emissions related to electricity consumption–thus accounting for ~29 per cent of UK GHG emissions in total”.267 Reducing the burden of UK buildings on the climate is possible, but may lead to adverse human health problems. Professor Davies, told us that:
The design of buildings and quality of materials used contribute to energy efficiency through improved insulation and ventilation control but, without careful design, implementation and maintenance, there are dangers of adverse effects on indoor environmental quality. Those adverse effects include possible increases in a range of indoor air pollutants which can increase risks of some types of cancer, including radon-related lung cancer,268 cardiorespiratory diseases and associated mortality/morbidity. Increases in thermal insulation and efficient heating systems of homes have the potential to reduce the still substantial burden of winter- and cold-related mortality/morbidity in the UK and help tackle fuel poverty.269
152.The Adaptation Sub-Committee of the Committee on Climate Change recently published a report, UK housing: Fit for the future?.270 Professor Davies, told us that the majority of UK housing stock, almost 29 million homes, are not fit for the risks of climate change, and need to be swiftly decarbonised.271 The CCC’s report found that:
- the UK’s legally-binding climate change targets will not be met without the near-complete elimination of greenhouse gas emissions from UK buildings.272
- emissions reductions from the UK’s 29 million homes have stalled, with uptake of energy efficiency measures having declined significantly in recent years. Installation of loft and wall cavity insulation is at just 5 per cent of the peak market delivery in 2012.273
- “energy use in homes”–which accounts for 14 per cent of total UK emissions–increased between 2016 and 2017”.274
- efforts to adapt the UK’s housing stock to the impacts of the changing climate, for higher average temperatures, flooding and water scarcity, are lagging far behind what is needed to keep us safe and comfortable, as these climate change risks grow.275
153.The CCC’s report recommended that future homes should not be built on the gas grid.276 In the Spring Statement, the Treasury partially accepted this recommendation introducing a Future Homes Standard, which will mandate the end of fossil-fuel heating systems in all new houses from 2025. However, the CCC had advised that new houses should be fully disconnected from the gas grid, ending the use of gas for cooking and heating water, not just for heating. This would reduce energy demand and could help tackle poverty in cities driven by high energy costs.
154.We recommend that the Government adopts the Committee on Climate Change’s recommendations on off-grid new housing in full. This would include stopping the connection of new homes to the gas grid from 2025. The Government should respond to each recommendation from the Committee on Climate Change’s report on UK housing.
155.We note that the number of energy efficiency installations (e.g. loft and wall cavity insulation) has collapsed since 2012.277 A new energy efficiency scheme should be developed and implemented by no later than April 2020 to create warmer homes which are cheaper to run.
156.DEFRA should also manage risk of water security in cities and set a default 100 litres per capita per day consumption target for water as recommended by the Committee on Climate Change.
Building regulations
157.Our witnesses criticised other building regulations that are currently in place. Dr Mylona, CIBSE, noted how Part F of the building regulations on adequate ventilation of buildings, “assumes that the air outside is clean”.278 Professor Davies, UCL, thought that there was “certainly a strong need for the relevant parts of the regulations to be addressed”,279 but that the “complex system of indoor air pollutants, which are generated indoors and pollutants that are generated outdoors… [made it]. difficult to develop generic rules”.280
158.UPSTREAM, a research project on urban planning and health, suggest that “poor indoor air quality costs £250 per person per year mainly in terms of lost productivity (due to headaches), while lack of green space costs over £220 per person per year due to mental health problems alone”.281
159.The CCC report on the future of UK housing recommended that the Government modify the building regulations (specifically part F and part L) in order to keep pace with improvements in the energy efficiency of buildings, in order to mitigate these negative impacts.282
160.In addition to the content of building regulations, witnesses were also concerned about enforcement, particularly in light of the Grenfell Tower tragedy.283 Professor Rydin, UCL, explained:
You need to look at how the whole building reg system is resourced, the ability of local councils to have officers to check that they are being implemented appropriately, because we do know that the building industry has skills loopholes, shall we say, which mean that what we plan does not always end up being what is built on the ground.284
161.Kit Malthouse, former Minister, MHCLG, recognised the importance of effective building regulations and told us: “Through the planning system and the building regulation system we try to set the framework within which the delivery arm, local authorities, is able to operate and deliver the kind of policies that are devised as a whole across Government”.285 He also told us that: “As a Department, we rely on a variety of technical advice that we glean from outside experts”.286 The Minister informed us of ongoing consultations reviewing building regulations including how to improve environmental standards.287
162.The Minister also commented on enforcement, agreeing that this was a major issue for future work:
One of things that came out, sadly, from the awful Grenfell tragedy was the fact that notwithstanding us having a building regulation system, the effectiveness of that system, and the policing and the implementation of it also need review. As part of our packet implementation plan, we are looking generally at the building regulation system and at what are the conflicts within it, to ensure that not only are we putting the rules in place but that they are being adhered to.288
163.Air pollution (indoor and outdoor) from human activity is an increasing concern and harms public health. The Committee on Climate Change Adaptation Sub-Committee has provided expert guidance on ways to strengthen the building regulations for new and existing housing. We welcome the Government’s plans to update the building regulations, including reviewing whether the current enforcement regime is effective.
164.We recommend that the Government’s review of the building regulations takes an integrated approach to ensure that sustainability and public health are properly reflected in any new code. We recommend that, in line with advice from the Committee on Climate Change, the Government change building regulations (specifically part F and L) to mitigate negative impacts of indoor air pollution.
Green spaces and urban planning
165.In written evidence, UPSTREAM stated that the “UK’s main urban development leaders, from both the public and private sector […] fully acknowledge that health is not adequately accounted for in the urban planning and development process”.289 They noted that urban planning is driven by “landowners, investors and developers” and the costs to health from poor urban planning should be better communicated.290 UPSTREAM suggest that “the lack of green space costs over £220 per person per year due to mental health problems alone”.291
166.A number of witnesses to this inquiry proposed the improvement and expansion of urban green spaces to promote health. Professor Michael Davies, UCL, argued:
Increased access to green space may yield mental health and other benefits particularly for disadvantaged groups and ecosystem approaches such as wetland protection or biodiversity corridors can increase resilience to extreme events.292
167.Professor Rydin from UCL, identified new opportunities in urban planning to increase activity in cities, incorporate more green spaces, reduce air pollution and improve public health:
… how we can make cities better connected for walking and cycling… That can involve also a lot of incorporation of green infrastructure, which has been shown to be important for combating air pollution and for mental health as well. I think there has been a big shift in the urban planning agenda towards this kind of new way at looking at things.293
168.UPSTREAM researchers found:
- a strong link between an increase in neighbourhood walkability and a reduction in the risk of high blood pressure;
- a strong link between improved access to open green space and improved mental health;
- a strong link between improved infrastructure for cycling and increased physical activity.294
169.Increasing green space can also reduce the urban heat island effect, reducing the health risks of heatwaves. The surface temperature in an urban green space may be 15–20°C lower than that of surrounding streets, resulting in an air temperature 2–8°C cooler.295 However, urban green space in England has declined from 63 per cent of urban area in 2001 to 56 per cent in 2016.296 With the average number of heat-related deaths in the UK expected to more than triple to 7,000 a year by the 2050s, increasing green space in cities could mitigate some of the risks of rising temperatures.297
170.The Government told us that there were a number of competing priorities in the allocation of land. Kit Malthouse, former Minister of State for Housing, MHCLG, told us:
What we try to do in the planning system is create an obligation on the local authorities to think about the sustainability of their communities and those that they are constructing, and that includes the provision of green space and play space and all those kinds of things. At the same time, though, we have to recognise that there are some local authorities where that is a challenge, because of constraints that they have, green belt, AONBs [Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty], whatever it might be. They need to think about notions of density within an urban environment, even gentle density, and how they can accommodate that so as to protect what green space they have.298
171.The Government’s Urban Tree Challenge Fund aims to stimulate tree planting in cities.299 However, current tree planting targets of 20,000 hectares/year across the UK nations, due to increase to 27,000 by 2025, are being missed by 50 per cent. Less than 10,000 hectares were planted, on average, over the last five years.300 The Committee on Climate Change have advised at least three times current rates (30,000 hectares a year) will be needed to achieve net zero emissions by 2050.301
172.Urban green space can improve public health and mental health outcomes, particularly for disadvantaged groups. The National Planning Policy Framework needs to be better updated to promote opportunities for active travel, green spaces and access to healthy, sustainable food in planning authorities’ local plans.
173.Green space is proven to reduce the urban heat island effect, reducing the risks from heatwaves. Our 2018 ‘Heatwaves: adapting to climate change’ report recommended that national targets be set to increase urban green space back up to 2001 levels or higher. We repeat this recommendation.
174.Increasing tree planting should be a priority to improve air quality, capture carbon and create green spaces in cities. Whilst we welcome the ‘Urban Tree Challenge Fund’, we note that tree targets are not being met, with only half the target number of trees having been planted in the last five years. The Government should update targets to align with the recommendation from the Committee on Climate Change. The Government should review its Tree Challenge Fund and set out how it will meet the CCC’s target of 30,000 hectares of tree planting a year. Councils should be mandated to state how many trees they will plant per house built with a minimum standard of one tree per house. Green infrastructure should be specified in planning permission.
Food and urban planning
175.A number of witnesses highlighted the problems around food and urban living. They pointed to a lack of access to healthy food and a proliferation of unhealthy fast food outlets, leading to a rise in the prevalence of obesity.302 Contributors emphasised the challenges of dietary change in communities with few food choices. Medact said that: “A focus on “individual behaviour” and “nudging” will do little to provide alternative, healthy, local and sustainable food to certain communities when the most readily available food on the market is ultra-processed, high-fat and high sugar”.303
176.Dr Jennifer Cole, Royal Holloway, University of London, wrote that:
UK diets reflect the typical Western/urban shift from fresh, healthy food with low fat/sugar/salt content to poor quality packaged food. The government, public and private sector needs to do more to address this through making healthier food easier to access and more affordable rather than just ‘shaming’ fast food and ready meals; this will become increasingly important as food prices may increase as climate impacts become more severe.304
177.Dr Cole argued that urban lifestyles with poor diet and low levels of physical activity, were not a “’lifestyle choice’ as it is often presented which blames the poorer socioeconomic groups”, but instead were “a consequence of systems that make any other options impractical for too many people”.305
178.We heard evidence that in Birmingham, the UK’s second largest city by population, urban planning was leading to poor health outcomes. Councillor Paulette Hamilton, Birmingham City Council, explained that residents have easy access to unhealthy food that was contributing to the obesity epidemic. Councillor Hamilton told us that: “Between school and the house [children] probably pass about 10 fast food places. The issue is between the planners and licensing and what have you are not joined up enough”.306
179.Dr Cole, Royal Holloway, University of London, argued that insufficient effort was being made to address over-consumption saying that there should be “stronger action against junk food sold on high streets and sweets/ crisps/ ready meals sold in supermarkets”.307
180.When asked about access to healthy foods and the proliferation of fast food outlets, Professor Cosford, Public Health England (PHE), echoed the Committees concerns:
There are 50,000 [fast food outlets] across the country and we know that they are more frequent in areas where diets tend to be poorer anyway, where people tend to have less-good health and they tend to push less-healthy diets—not always, not every fast food outlet is necessarily unhealthy, but the majority will be in that direction. As part of our guidance on what the evidence says about planning for health, that is one of the issues that we think is really important, fast food outlets close to schools.308
181.Professor Cosford told us that PHE aims to “translate a complex set of evidence into practical tools that local government can use in its planning processes. We do that in relation to fast food outlets and healthy planning, to air pollution and planning, for healthy, sustainable communities. The extent to which local authorities manage to implement them is a separate question”.309
182.Kit Malthouse, then Minister of State for Housing, MHCLG, told us that the National Planning Policy Framework, “does give local authorities the ability to set limits of use within the high street they are curating, if the evidence allows them. If there is a proliferation of a particular use, they can limit it through their planning powers now”.310 But the Minister noted that the local authorities had to provide sufficient evidence and that “the problem comes where you already have a proliferation and beyond shutting them down, there is not much that can be done about it at the moment”.311
183.The Government has a responsibility to increase equitable access to healthy, sustainable food for city dwellers. The Government should review its planning policy guidance to measure how well the current restrictions on fast food outlets are working in practice and it should ensure that planning authorities are able to restrict the numbers of fast food outlets without stringent evidence requirements. The Government’s forthcoming National Food Strategy should set out how the Government will work with food providers, including restaurants, fast food outlets and supermarkets to transform the way that people consume food in the UK.
217 United Nations, 2018 Revision of World Urbanization Prospects, (2018)
218 United Nations, The World’s Cities in 2018—Data Booklet, (2018)
219 Office for National Statistics, National Population Projections: 2016-based statistical bulletin, (Accessed 13 August 2019)
220 Office for National Statistics, National Population Projections: 2016-based statistical bulletin, (Accessed 13 August 2019)
221 The World Bank, UK Urban population ( per cent of population), (Accesses 13 August 2019)
222 Sarah Whitmee et al., ‘Safeguarding human health in the Anthropocene epoch: report of The Rockefeller Foundation–Lancet Commission on planetary health’, The Lancet, Vol. 386 (2015), pp.1973–2028
223 Local Government Association and Public Health England, Health and wellbeing in rural areas, (2017)
224 Ibid.
225 Professor Michael Davies, Professor Sir Andy Haines, Professor Paul Wilkinson, Professor Tony Capon and Dr Melanie Crane (PLA0012); Wellcome Trust (PLA0019)
226 Environmental Audit Committee, Ninth Report of Session 2017–19, Heatwaves: Adapting to Climate Change, HC 826
228 Ibid.
229 Committee on the Medical Effects of Air Pollutants, Associations of long-term average concentrations of nitrogen dioxide with mortality, (2018); Royal College of Physicians, Every breath we take: the lifelong impact of air pollution, (2016)
230 Royal College of Physicians, Reducing air pollution in the UK: Progress report 2018, (2018)
233 Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Environmental Audit, Health and Social Care, and Transport Committees, Fourth Report of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Fourth Report of the Environmental Audit Committee, Third Report of the Health and Social Care Committee and Second Report of the Transport Committee of Session 2017–19, Improving air quality, HC433
234 Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Clean Air Strategy, (2019)
235 Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Clean Air Strategy, (2019)
236 Ibid.
238 Professor Michael Davies, Professor Sir Andy Haines, Professor Paul Wilkinson, Professor Tony Capon and Dr Melanie Crane (PLA0012)
239 UPSTREAM is a three year research project funded by the Wellcome Trust and led by the University of West England to look at how cities can support an escalating global population whilst adapting to health and environmental concerns.
243 Professor Michael Davies, Professor Sir Andy Haines, Professor Paul Wilkinson, Professor Tony Capon and Dr Melanie Crane (PLA0012)
244 Ibid.
245 Ibid.
249 Including the LSHTM Planetary Health Alliance (PLA0020); UK Health Alliance on Climate Change (PLA0013)
250 Professor Michael Davies, Professor Sir Andy Haines, Professor Paul Wilkinson, Professor Tony Capon and Dr Melanie Crane (PLA0012)
252 ‘Painted bike lanes are waste of money, say cycling commissioners’, The Guardian, (17 June 2019)
253 Ben Beck et al., How much space do drivers provide when passing cyclists? Understanding the impact of motor vehicle and infrastructure characteristics on passing distance, Accident Analysis & Prevention. Vol. 128 (2019), pp.253–260
254 Magda Cepeda et al., Levels of ambient air pollution according to mode of transport: a systematic review, The Lancet Public Health. Vol. 2 (2016), pp.23–34
257 NHS England, Healthy New Towns, (2016)
258 Department for Transport, Manual for Streets, (2007)
259 Department for Transport, Cycling and Walking Investment Strategy, (2017)
261 Ibid.
263 Grant et al. (2008) Freiburg Study Tour: Planning, Public Health, Urban Design. WHO Collaborating Centre for Healthy Cities and Urban Policy and NHS South West
264 Hall. P (2014) Good Cities, Better Lives: How Europe Discovered the Lost Art of Urbanism. Routledge, Abingdon
267 Professor Michael Davies, Professor Sir Andy Haines, Professor Paul Wilkinson, Professor Tony Capon and Dr Melanie Crane (PLA0012)
268 James Milner et al., Home energy efficiency and radon related risk of lung cancer: modelling study, BMJ. Vol. 348 (2014)
269 Professor Michael Davies, Professor Sir Andy Haines, Professor Paul Wilkinson, Professor Tony Capon and Dr Melanie Crane (PLA0012)
270 Committee on Climate Change, UK housing: Fit for the future?, (2019)
272 Committee on Climate Change, UK housing: Fit for the future?, (2019)
273 Committee on Climate Change, UK housing: Fit for the future?, (2019)
274 Committee on Climate Change, UK housing: Fit for the future?, (2019)
275 Committee on Climate Change, UK housing: Fit for the future?, (2019)
276 Committee on Climate Change, UK housing: Fit for the future?, (2019)
277 Committee on Climate Change, UK housing: Fit for the future?, (2019)
281 UPSTREAM, Moving planetary health upstream in urban development decision-making – a three-year pilot research project, (2019)
282 Committee on Climate Change, UK housing: Fit for the future?, (2019)
284 Ibid.
286 Ibid.
290 ibid
291 ibid
292 Professor Michael Davies, Professor Sir Andy Haines, Professor Paul Wilkinson, Professor Tony Capon and Dr Melanie Crane (PLA0012); See also WHO Europe, Urban Green Space Interventions and Health, (2017)
294 Daniel Black et al., Moving Health Upstream in Urban Development: Reflections on the Operationalization of a Transdisciplinary Case Study. Global Challenges. Vol. 3 (2018)
295 Environmental Audit Committee, Ninth Report of Session 2017–19, Heatwaves: Adapting to Climate Change, HC 826
296 Charles Ffoulkes, Research to provide updated indicators of climate change risk and adaptation action in England, Submission to the Committee on Climate Change, (2017)
297 Environmental Audit Committee, Ninth Report of Session 2017–19, Heatwaves: Adapting to Climate Change, HC 826
299 Forestry Commission, Urban Tree Challenge Fund, (Accessed 08 August 2019)
300 Forest Research, Provisional Woodland Statistics, (2019)
301 Committee on Climate Change, Reducing UK emissions, 2019 Progress Report to Parliament, (July 2019)
302 For example, Dr Jennifer Cole (PLA0003); Q312 (Rachel Huxley); London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (PLA0022)
305 Ibid.
Published: 17 September 2019