Published: 20 November 2025
Public Health Wales has published a new guide to support local authorities in Wales to design, plan and create places that enable people to live healthier, happier lives.
The Planning Healthy Places guide outlines how health can be embedded in the Local Development Plan (LDP) process, which is the long-term planning framework that sets out where and how new housing, employment, facilities, transport links, green space and community services will be located.
The built and natural environment has a significant influence on our health and wellbeing and can help to reduce health inequalities. Access to green spaces, good quality housing, safe spaces for walking and cycling, and opportunities to connect with others are all shaped by planning and design decisions.
The guide aims to help planning and health professionals work more closely together to ensure these health considerations are placed at the heart of future development across Wales.
It provides practical advice for planners, public health teams, and partners on:
Using local health data and community needs to inform planning policies
Incorporating health and wellbeing priorities into Local Development Plans
Applying Health Impact Assessments (HIA) when drafting or reviewing policies
Designing communities that support active travel, access to nature, social connection and healthy food
Reducing inequalities by ensuring all communities benefit from healthy, well-designed environments.
The guide responds to a growing recognition across Wales that planning policy plays a key role in improving population health and reducing health inequalities, and that healthier environments can prevent illness and reduce pressure on health and care services in the long term.
Liz Green, Consultant in Public Health at Public Health Wales, said:
“Good planning in Wales is more than design, it’s a way of enabling people to live healthier lives, create stronger communities, and facilitate access to a greener future. Spatial planning plays an important role in Wales's commitment to improving public health and wellbeing and reducing inequalities.
“This guide provides the tools to bring health into planning policy in Local Development Plans and the evidence to demonstrate how and why planning and design can link so closely to our health and well-being.”
The guide is intended for use by local authority planning policy teams, development management officers, local public health teams, Health Boards, Public Services Boards, and developers. It can also be adapted to support supplementary planning guidance and other local policy work.