Health and wellbeing are profoundly affected by the area in which people live and work. From the impact of active travel on cardiovascular health, to the role of car-induced air pollution in respiratory illnesses, all the way to the effects of isolation and loneliness on mental and physical health, there is strong evidence that urban design and service provision are critical to health.

Alongside the increasingly evident effects of climate change and pressures on our healthcare system, it feels like we are now at a pivotal point in creating places for healthy communities.

To help our community make sure that the London Bridge area works hard to support their wellbeing, Team London Bridge will be working with Centre for London to investigate a health-led approach to designing and managing urban environments. The project will explore how the built environment and public services in an area affect the health and wellbeing of workers and residents, and to assess how existing interventions have affected health.

Through projects like the SUDS Raingarden scheme in Snowsfields, to the Bikes for Business programme to enable firms to adopt cargo bikes, Team London Bridge has pioneered approaches to place management that embed health and wellbeing.

Alongside the team at Centre of London, we want to build on this legacy of progressive public space interventions and create a strategic framework for health-led working over the coming years.

Starting in May, the project will begin by reviewing current thinking, identify examples of best practice, undertake a baseline study of the health and wellbeing of local employees and employers, and assess TLB's existing interventions through a health-led framework.

Based on this and local intelligence, a report later in the year will offer recommendations for changes to existing activities and co-develop potential new interventions in the London Bridge area to improve health and wellbeing.

A health-led approach for London Bridge