Whilst Taylor Wimpey are supportive of the desire to apply health principles to new development, the requirement under the policy to draw on the ten principles developed from the Healthy New Towns initiative is considered onerous. It is suggested that the wording of this policy is amended to state that ‘we will seek to integrate health considerations into policies across the Plan. This would require health principles to be applied to new developments wherever possible, drawing on the ten principles developed from the Healthy New Towns initiative as appropriate.’
The requirement for a Health Impact Assessment to be submitted with applications is also currently ambiguous. The proposed policy wording states that ‘Health Impact Assessments will be required to accompany planning applications (at a level of detail appropriate to the scale and nature of the application).’ It is suggested that further clarification should be provided within the wording of this policy as to what scale and nature of development would trigger what level of detail. This would minimise the risk of documents not covering the necessary detail expected by the Council. For example South Cambridgeshire Local Plan 2018 Policy SC/2 specifies that such a report is required for developments of 20 dwellings or more.