Healthy and well

Opportunities

Central Bedfordshire benefits from many modern public leisure facilities and open spaces providing opportunities for being physically active. There is opportunity to enhance these, and establish a wider range of spaces; including parks, fields, wild spaces, and communal spaces.

Central Bedfordshire’s rural character, agricultural heritage and anticipated housing development creates an opportunity for more local and community-led food production.

Central Bedfordshire is expected to deliver nearly 40,000 new homes by 2035. New housing development on this scale provides an opportunity to promote healthy lifestyles through Active Design; creating healthy communities that improves connectivity and encourages people to use outside spaces where it is easy to walk, cycle, and play.

Challenges

In some wards, up to 39% of children leaving primary school are overweight. Research from the WHO shows that obese children are much more likely to develop serious illnesses in adulthood which could place further strain on our health services in future.

Recent studies have found that children in the UK spend twice as long looking at screens than they do playing outside. We need to consider the negative health and well-being implications this may have.

Central Bedfordshire’s key growth sectors include transport and storage, property, and professional, scientific & technical industries; all of which are likely to provide a large proportion of sedentary roles.

Trends

A higher life expectancy

Life expectancy is higher than national averages for both men and women, and is increasing by 4 years for men and 2.1 years for women per decade. This average hides considerable differences between the most and least deprived.

Healthy ways of travel

Levels of walking and cycling to work in Central Bedfordshire are below the national average – 71% of people travel to work by car.

Obesity level

Although obesity levels are lower than the national average (61% of adults overweight or obese, compared with 65% nationally), only one-in-five adults in Central Bedfordshire report being physically active.

Employment in technology

Fewer people in Central Bedfordshire have manual jobs. Over the past 10 years, Central Bedfordshire has seen a 38% increase in workers employed in IT & tech occupations and a 23% increase in workers employed in professional services occupations.