Health Equalities Group launch their Food Policy & Planning Toolkit

What the toolkit aims to do

The toolkit aims to equip Councils with the knowledge of how to leverage local plans and other planning policy tools to shape healthier food environments.

What’s in the toolkit?

The Food Policy & Planning Toolkit contains planning tools (the what), planning policy options (the how) and a checklist for internal use for assessing planning applications. The toolkit provides guidance on the evidence needed to justify policy, outlines additional resources and case studies and suggests partners to engage with.  

Planning tools

The toolkit explains each planning tool and how the promotion of healthy, sustainable and affordable food can be reflected within these. These include local plans, sustainability appraisals, supplementary planning guidance, monitoring, health impact assessments and designs for healthy food neighbourhoods.

Planning policy options

Planning policy options are provided for 5 key themes:

• Food growing and production
• Improving access to food through good food retail
• Economy
• Access to healthier food in the home, at school and in the workplace
• Access to healthier food in the public realm

Checklist

The checklist has been designed for internal consultees to assess planning application impacts on the healthy food environment. It can be used for monitoring and policy reviews. It is organised along the same 5 key themes in the planning policy options.

Who can use the toolkit?

The Health Equalities Group welcome all local planning authorities to use the toolkit.

Who designed the toolkit?

The toolkit was designed by the Health Equalities Group, a public health charity working to improve the wellbeing of local communities and funded by the Cheshire & Merseyside Cancer Alliance. The toolkit was developed with the help of Sustain and Council partners in Cheshire and Merseyside.

Sustain contributed to the development of this toolkit as part of our Planning for the Planet campaign. This campaign helps councils to ensure that all applications for agriculture developments fully disclose their impacts and have robust emissions assessment and a waste management plan to protect our rivers. Find out more here.  

Matthew Philpott, Executive Director at the Health Equalities Group, said:

“We are really pleased to launch the ‘Food Policy & Planning Toolkit’, co-produced with Sustain and Council partners from across Cheshire and Merseyside. The toolkit hosts a wealth of information for public health teams and local planning authorities to consider in local plan development and place-making to create healthier food environments. This can contribute to a number of strategic objectives and areas of local authority work requiring collaboration, cross boundary working and a unified vision and approach. The launch of the toolkit is timely in light of the new National Planning Policy Framework in considering the opportunities to draw on the legislative and regulatory provisions of the planning system, to create healthy places for our communities.”

Vicky Gerrard, Campaign and Research Intern at Sustain, said:

“Local planning policy is a powerful tool for healthy, sustainable food as demonstrated in case studies within the toolkit. This toolkit will support councils to leverage this power, I encourage local planning authorities to use the toolkit, it’s so important food is considered at all levels of policy.”