The Covid19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of local places for people’s health and wellbeing. Spatial planning policy shapes local neighbourhoods, with significant impacts on the health and wellbeing of both current and future residents.

This paper reports key impacts of two different options for spatial planning policy: the traditional approach and a 20-minute neighbourhood approach. It presents potential impacts of each scenario on the wellbeing of people and planet and summarises the key issues, recommendations and research questions.

The report is the result of two workshops held in August 2020 to consider the impacts of the two contrasting planning scenarios on different populations, on Place and Health Themes defined in the Place Standard and on the Scottish National Outcomes.

The workshops described in this report were organised jointly by the Improvement Service, Scottish Health and Inequalities Impact Assessment Network, and the Spatial Planning for Health and Wellbeing Collaborative Group, with support from colleagues in Public Health Scotland.

The Spatial Planning for Health and Wellbeing Collaborative Group involves public health and planning practitioners and organisations who are working to embed Place, Health and Wellbeing themes, expertise and evidence into spatial planning policy including NPF4, the Scottish Government ambition for 20 minute neighbourhoods and regulations for health assessments of national and major developments.

Read the report