Built and Natural Environments that Enable Physical Activity

Local natural and built environments are attractive, accessible, and safe, encouraging movement and physical activity.

Perceptions and experiences of local environments can affect people’s willingness to engage with their surroundings and often reflect broader inequalities. Improving the design and management of built and natural environments ensures they are safe and valuable for everyone.

The built environment refers to the human-made surroundings that provide the setting for activity, including homes, schools, workplaces, parks, transportation systems (like roads, bridges, and railways), and public spaces. A place-based approach leverages the unique geographical or physical attributes of an area.

What this looks like in practice

1. Connecting existing assets: In Doncaster, investment connected a leisure centre and a country park that were geographically close but functionally disconnected. Improvements to access and shared facilities helped create a more integrated space supporting a range of physical activities.
2. Supporting community-led use of spaces: Community groups can play an important role in activating physical environments. In Doncaster, a small group of residents helped establish a pétanque club in a local park, which quickly grew in membership. Increased usage improved perceptions of safety and supported wider investment in the park.
3. Embedding physical activity into planning systems: In Exeter, physical activity has been integrated into planning and policy processes including the Exeter 2040 housing plan and the Exeter Local Plan. Active design principles have also been embedded into new housing developments.
4. Small infrastructure improvements shaped by community insight: Local communities can identify small but impactful improvements to the public realm, such as dropped kerbs, cycle access and removal of barriers. These relatively small changes can significantly improve walking and cycling infrastructure.

There are some interesting case studies Doncaster and Exeter Place Partnerships that help bring this to life:

• Get Doncaster Moving – https://www.getdoncastermoving.org
• A place-based physical activity system including parks activation and active environments work.

• Live and Move Exeter – https://www.liveandmove.co.uk
• Programme linking planning, communities and physical activity across Exeter and Cranbrook.

Additional Resources

Sport England Active Design guidance

• Active Design provides 10 principles for designing places that encourage everyday movement, covering themes such as active travel, walkable communities, high-quality public spaces and connected networks of open spaces. This is widely used in planning, urban design and local authority policy to integrate physical activity into development decisions.

Natural England Green Infrastructure Framework

• The framework sets out national standards for green infrastructure, helping planners and local authorities determine the quantity, quality and accessibility of green space needed to support health, wellbeing and nature recovery. It also supports the policy ambition that everyone should be able to access green or blue space within a short walk of home.

Sport England – Active Environments Framework

• This provides broader guidance on how facilities, planning and investment decisions can support active environments.