press trust of india
London, August 22: The UK is exploring plans for “healthy” new towns where residents will win discounts and deals for keeping fit.
The incentives being planned by state-funded National Health Service (NHS) for some of Britain’s new-build homes will involve signing up to exercise apps that track the residents’ progress for them to be eligible for pay-outs, including supermarket vouchers and free cinema tickets.
“The much-needed push to kick start affordable housing across England creates a golden opportunity for the NHS to help promote health… we’ll kick ourselves if in 10 years’ time we look back having missed the opportunity to ‘design out’ the obesogenic environment, and ‘design in’ health and wellbeing,” said Simon Stevens, chief executive of NHS England.
The idea of the healthy new towns was launched in March last year, with NHS England putting the plan up for a competition. Citiesmode, urban planners based in London, is one of the companies that won with its plans for Halton Lea in Runcorn, proposing an “urban obstacle course” linking public gym equipment with sprinting tracks on pavements, free bikes, a community kitchen, shopping discounts and universal wifi to help access health technology.
The company is due to deliver on its strategy in January next year. Other options to be tested at some of the new healthy sites include fast food free zones near schools, designing safe and appealing green spaces, building dementia-friendly streets and ensuring people can access new General Physician services using digital technology.
“Some of the UK’s most pressing health challenges – such as obesity, mental health issues, physical inactivity and the needs of an ageing population – can all be influenced by the quality of our built and natural environment.
“The considerate design of spaces and places is critical to promote good health,” said Professor Kevin Fenton, National Director for Health and Wellbeing at Public Health England (PHE).
NHS England is bringing together clinicians, designers and technology experts to reimagine how healthcare can be delivered in these new towns. There are more than 76,000 homes on sites that have joined the programme, including Ebbsfleet Garden City in Kent, Barton Park in Oxford, Whitehill and Bordon in Hampshire, Cranbrook in Devon, Barking Riverside in London, Whyndyke Farm in Lancashire, as well as new developments in Darlington, Bicester, Oxfordshire, and Northstowe in Cambridgeshire.
While the Bicester development will offer 40 per cent green space for allotments, cycle and walkways, the Darlington development plans to build “smart homes” in which the NHS can use technology to monitor the health of elderly residents.
