Guidance

Building for a healthy life

A design toolkit for neighbourhoods, streets, homes and public spaces.

• From: Homes England
• Published: 17 May 2026

Applies to England

Documents

Building for a healthy life (2026 edition)

PDF, 32.9 MB, 112 pages

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Details

For over 20 years, Building for a Healthy Life has been applied to residential development, with expertise of its many contributors in streets, landscape and place design.

Building for a Healthy Life uses 12 core principles to assess placemaking, giving clear examples of what good placemaking looks like. It uses a traffic light system to assess a development scheme’s approach to these core principles.

This updated 2026 version includes illustrated tips showing what improves new places and what can spoil them.

Homes England adopted Building for a Healthy Life as its key design quality indicator in 2019.

Published 17 May 2026