About the toolkit
Background
Healthy places help people live longer, healthier, happier lives.
The emerging Birmingham Local Plan (Policy HN12: Healthy Neighbourhoods) encourages the use of the healthy placemaking (HPM) toolkit and requires health impact assessments (HIAs) for larger developments.
The draft healthy placemaking toolkit provides a practical guide to help create places that promote health and wellbeing.
Find out more about the Birmingham Local Plan
What the toolkit includes
Healthy placemaking (HPM) checklist
Use the HPM checklist to assess potential health impacts at an early stage. It is designed for smaller developments, such as those with 10 to 49 homes.
The checklist is structured around 12 themes:
- access to employment and training
- access to health and social care services and other social infrastructure
- access to a healthy food environment
- access to open space and the natural environment
- active travel and accessibility
- air quality, noise and neighbourhood amenity
- child-friendly place
- creating healthy places
- crime reduction and community safety
- digital and technology
- housing standards and inclusive design
- mitigation of and adaptation to climate change
Each theme includes questions to identify potential health impacts of a proposed development.
The questions provide a useful framework, but do not cover every possible impact.
Health impact assessment (HIA)
An HIA will be required for larger developments, such as those with 50 or more homes, or other high-impact developments.
The HIA is structured around the same 12 themes as the HPM checklist.
An HIA is most effective when used early in the design process, after you have defined the proposals but before you prepare the final plans.
This means that the assessment findings can influence how the development is designed and implemented.
A summary report must document this process as part of the planning application you submit to the council.
Download the draft healthy placemaking toolkit
Guidance
The toolkit is supported by the healthy placemaking toolkit guidance. It provides:
- clear instructions on when and how to use the HPM checklist and HIAs
- technical advice tailored to Birmingham’s needs
- a resource section that summarises:
- main health issues
- their relevance to planning
- supporting evidence
Download the healthy placemaking toolkit guidance
Page last updated: 28 August 2026
