Useful resources: healthy urban environments and placemaking

National and local resources

The Scottish Government provides information on their policies relating to Building, Planning and Design. 

The Place Standard tool provides a simple framework to structure conversations about place. It allows you to think about the physical elements of a place (for example its buildings, spaces, and transport links) as well as the social aspects (for example whether people feel they have a say in decision making). 

The Scottish Urban Regeneration Forum (SURF) is Scotland’s independent regeneration network. SURF’s overall objective is to improve the health and wellbeing of residents in Scotland’s disadvantaged communities. SURF network activity includes seminars, conferences, international policy exchanges, annual awards for best practice and the distribution of the regeneration policy journal, Scotregen.  

Architecture and Design Scotland is Scotland's champion for excellence in placemaking, architecture and planning. The organisation operates as a non-departmental public body of The Scottish Government, working with both the public and private sectors to advocate good quality design.  

Built Environment Forum Scotland (BEFS) is an umbrella body for organisations working in the built environment in Scotland.  

The Scottish Health and Inequalities Impact Assessment Network (SHIIAN) is coordinated by NHS Health Scotland and is open to anyone working or planning to work on health impact assessments (HIA) and health inequalities impact assessments in Scotland.  

Clyde Gateway is a specially created urban regeneration company covering the east end of Glasgow, including Bridgeton and Dalmarnock and Rutherglen and Shawfield in South Lanarkshire. 

Working in partnership with Glasgow City Council, South Lanarkshire Council, Scottish Enterprise, with Scottish Government funding, Clyde Gateway were established in December 2007 to drive forward the 20-year investment programme. The website provides up to date information on progress towards delivering change. 

Glasgow Housing Association (GHA) are one the largest social landlords in the UK. GHA work to provide over 40,000 affordable homes, as well as providing community regeneration and property management services to their tenants.  

The Central Scotland Green Network aim to promote and enable the 'greening' of vacant and derelict land sites. The Glasgow & Clyde Valley (GCV) Green Network is a significant regional component of the CSGN and leads a programme of strategic greenspace enhancements designed to promote healthier lifestyles, better environments, greater biodiversity, stronger communities and economic opportunity.

UK resources

The Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) is the UK's leading planning body for spatial, sustainable and inclusive planning. As well as being a membership organisation and a Chartered Institute, the RTPI are a charitable organisation which seeks to advance the science and art of planning (including town and country and spatial planning) for the benefit of the public.  

The Town and Country Planning Association campaigns for the reform of the UK’s planning system to make it more responsive to people’s needs and aspirations and to promote sustainable development.  

Living Streets are a national charity working to ensure that streets and public places are pedestrian friendly. They seek to influence decision makers by working with local people and professionals to promote community action and collaborative working for improving streets across the country. Living Streets have a wide range of published material which is largely based on case studies of community action. Further research reports relating to active travel and the experience of pedestrians can be found at the website.  

The Design Council  are an independent charity and the UK Government’s advisor on design.

Social Life is a social enterprise created by the Young Foundation. The organisation work internationally with communities, built environment professionals, public agencies and governments, putting people and social need at the heart of the way cities, towns and new developments are planned, developed and managed.  

The London Healthy Urban Development Unit (HUDU) helps to create healthy sustainable communities and ensure that new developments are planned with health in mind.  

The UCL Grand Challenge on Sustainable Cities supports small research projects on a range of topics relating to urban planning and sustainability.

International resources

The WHO Collaborating Centre for Healthy Urban Environments promotes healthy and sustainable settlements through research, teaching, consultancy, knowledge exchange and publications. We work closely with municipalities, planning consultancies and health authorities in the UK, as well as with the wider WHO European Healthy Cities network.  

The Belfast Healthy Cities site provides access to a number of different resources online, as well as a series a publications that have been developed.