There has been a growing realisation over the past decade that much of our built environment fails to meet the needs of important, but often overlooked sections of society. Arguably foremost among these are children and young people. The covid pandemic exposed in the starkest way the disparities that the youngest in society often face in terms of access to safe spaces beyond the home.

Jonny Anstead, founding director of TOWN, a leading developer, and chair of the Quality of Life Foundation, has spoken about the way in which his company seeks to include the needs of young people, but is damning about the UK’s overall performance.

“New housing development across the country [is] overwhelmingly mediocre or poor,” he told a parliamentary inquiry into young people and the built environment this year. “The path of least resistance is to create an environment that is very good for refuse and highways, but which is very poor for children.

“The cities and countries that are most effective at getting neighbourhoods to work better for children really see children as a prism or lens through which to see the whole of the planning system,” he added.

“It’s a strategic question… about how a focus on children makes concrete what good places look like – they’re walkable, they’re compact, they’re green. It also helps to build a long-term vision and consensus about what good places… feel like.”

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