Evidence Hub

Evaluating the use of planning policy to support public health

Quick-read summary

A local authority in the North East has taken a ‘blanket ban’ approach to new applications for fast food takeaways in a bid to improve health and tackle childhood obesity.

By using all of the planning policy available, Gateshead Council has been able to reduce the proportion of fast-food outlets in the borough by 14 percent. It also reduced the density of takeaway outlets available – to around 13 less outlets for every 100,000 residents.

Who is this evidence useful for?

Anyone with an interest in planning policy and/or public health, including local government elected members and officers, planners, public health practitioners, policy makers.

Research context

Research has shown that the food available close to where we are is likely to influence what we eat. We also know that the food offered by takeaway outlets can contribute to becoming overweight or obese if they are eaten regularly.

Gateshead has higher than the average national levels of children who are either overweight or obese.

As part of work to address this, Gateshead Council tool the decision to use of the planning policy available, to try and prevent any further fast-food outlets opening up in the borough.

In England there are three main types of planning policy used to promote a healthy food environment:

• restricting new fast-food outlets near schools
• restricting new fast-food outlets if the density of existing outlets has surpassed a certain threshold of all retail outlets (for example, no more than 20% of all outlets can be fast-food)
• restricting new fast-food outlets if childhood obesity rates are above a certain threshold (for example, above 20% based upon data from National Childhood Measurement Programme for children aged 4-5 and 10-11).

Gateshead applied all three to any new applications for fast food takeaway premises – creating was essentially a ‘blanket ban’.

The use of planning policy can be one way to help shape a healthy environment by limiting or restricting where certain types of food outlets can be located.

This study evaluates the pilot in Gateshead, where the local authority adopted all three types of policy, to do all they could to stop any further takeaways opening up in their area.

Research summary

The research evaluated if Gateshead Council’s approach to planning had any significant impact on the density (the number takeaways in relation to the number of people living in a certain area) and proportion (how many food outlets they had) of fast-food outlets in Gateshead compared to other local authorities in the North East which did not have any type of planning guidance.

What the research found

The work found that, compared to other local authorities in the North East, Gateshead’s planning policy reduced the density of fast-food outlets by around 13 per 100,000 people, and the proportion of fast-food outlets compared to other types of food outlets by around 14%.

So, this multi-pronged planning approach employed by Gateshead to restrict new fast-food outlets led to a reduction in the density and proportion of these outlets

Implications for policy and practice

These results provide important evidence for both local and national government on effective ways to promote a healthier environment within a period of less than five years.

It is also important to put these findings into the current context of proposed changes to planning legislation when considering how local government can make a difference to their local environment in the future.

Recommendations

• Further research is needed to understand if reducing the number of fast-food outlets has an impact on diet and related health conditions, including obesity and other diet-related diseases.
• We need to consider that the growth of food ordering platforms may limit the effectiveness of planning guidance in the future to tackle local area obesity rates.
• There needs to be greater coordination between national and local government to develop a strategy to ensure the environment in which we live is health promoting.

Lead author

Professor Heather Brown, Newcastle University

Get in touch about this research

Email: [email protected]

Published in Social Science and Medicine, August 2022

Read the full paper

Co-authors

Heather Brown, Huasheng Xiang, Viviana Albani, Louis Goffe, Nasima Akhter, Amelia Lake, Stewart Sorrell, Emma Gibson, John Wildman