North Yorkshire housebuilder sets new standard for healthier, liveable communities

Barratt Redrow, the UK’s largest housebuilder, has launched Great Places, a new placemaking framework that provides a measurable approach to designing healthier, greener, and better-connected places across its future developments.

This builds on the housebuilder’s existing placemaking efforts, with the framework representing the next phase of its strategy across its three brands, Barratt Homes, David Wilson Homes and Redrow.

Bringing together the housebuilder’s strongest placemaking principles into one group-wide standard, Great Places has been designed to ensure new neighbourhoods deliver high-quality homes and help support healthier lives.

Coming into effect immediately, every new development will be assessed on how it delivers nature-rich spaces, safe and attractive streets, walking and cycling routes, inclusive places to meet, and long-term stewardship, based on eight outcome-focused principles.

With Barratt Redrow delivering more than 17,000 homes a year across England, Scotland and Wales, the framework has the potential to shape and improve the everyday lives of hundreds of thousands of future residents.

As well as adopting the guidance set out in the recently launched Building for a Healthy Life, a design toolkit published by the Government for creating more liveable neighbourhoods, Great Places responds directly to evolving consumer expectations.

New research commissioned by Barratt Redrow among 1,012 prospective home buyers from across the UK found nine in 10 (90%) value access to nature and wellbeing features. It also found 87% prioritise places to go and things to do, and 85% believe creating a positive legacy is important when choosing where to live.

Joe Stenson, Group Head of Urban Design at Barratt Redrow, said: “Customers are telling us very clearly, they want more than just a home. They want places that feel safe, connected, and close to nature, with streets, green spaces and local facilities that support everyday life. Using our unified standard, we’re embedding this customer expectation directly into the design and delivery process of our new communities, alongside nationwide planning and design guidance.

“Building on our existing placemaking expertise, Great Places ensures we can apply those principles consistently and at scale, helping to create communities that support healthier, more active and more connected lives.”

Developed with industry experts

The Great Places framework has been informed by challenge from external industry experts and thought leaders in urban design, landscape architecture, health and wellbeing, street design, play, and quality of life. It has also been shaped through internal consultation across Barratt Redrow and customer insight, alongside a review of national placemaking and urban design policy and guidance.

Barratt Redrow’s dedicated urban design and placemaking team will use the new framework to review and audit every development, ensuring each community supports natural connections, getting around, facilities and stewardship, housing affordability, memorable character, healthy streets, green and blue infrastructure, and well-defined streets and spaces.

Great Places has received support from David Birkbeck OBE, one of the authors of Building for a Healthy Life, and Lord Mawson OBE, the social entrepreneur whose regeneration work in Bromley-by-Bow has become a nationally recognised model for community-led place creation.

Lord Mawson OBE, Chairman of the 360 Degree Society, said: “Places change lives when they are built around people. The connections between residents, services, green spaces and everyday opportunities are what create healthier communities.

“It is encouraging to see the UK’s biggest housebuilder’s dedicated placemaking team continuing to recognise that great design is not an optional extra. It is central to whether communities thrive. If applied consistently, Great Places has the potential to make a real difference to daily life and help create places where families are healthier, neighbours are more connected and communities have stronger foundations for the future.”

David Birkbeck OBE, Founder and CEO of Design for Homes, said: “Great Places will make it easier to walk, cycle, meet neighbours, enjoy being outdoors and feel positive about the streets where you live. It aligns with the Government’s health strategy to make ‘liveability’ core to designing new places.”

Great Places builds on Barratt Redrow’s 2025 commitment to ensure every new play area it builds is inclusive and accessible for young people of different abilities, with play spaces designed to support active, imaginative, sensory and quiet play.

For more information about any of the housebuilder’s developments in the area, visit the websites at Barratt Homes in North Yorkshire and David Wilson Homes in North Yorkshire.