Building for a Healthy Life and National Design Guide are important design guidance used for assessing the quality of a given design and are referred to in the National Planning Policy Framework. Assessments against BfHL and NDG are therefore used across the country and frequently requested and given “weight” in the decision on a planning application by a Local Planning Authority or when an application is at appeal.
We have prepared many Building for a Healthy Life (BfHL) and National Design Guide (NDG) assessments for development proposals where we have been the lead master planner or urban design team, or for others where an independent assessment was required. In order prepare an assessment, we developed a tried and tested template for both assessments which provide a clear structure against which to evaluate the different aspects of the “12 Considerations” in the BfHL and the “10 Characteristics” in the National Design Guide.
Our clients include national housebuilders; small and medium sized developers and site promoters; and individual site owners. We typically include the assessments as part of a Design and Access Statement or a Design Code or can prepare them separate to a planning application submission as an independent report.
