Partnership helping residents live healthier lives welcomes new member
A Bedfordshire-based partnership designed to help residents live healthier and more active lives has expanded, bringing in new expertise to help create neighbourhoods that support people’s health and wellbeing.
Published: 08/09/2026
The Healthy Places and Communities Partnership brings together housing providers Amplius, bpha and Peabody with Public Health, BeActive Bedfordshire and the Chartered Institute of Housing. The Town and Country Planning Association (TCPA) has now joined the partnership, bringing its expertise in creating healthy places and communities.
The partnership looks at how homes, neighbourhoods and local spaces can support healthier lives. This includes making it easier for people to be active and connect with others.
It is also supporting the delivery of Sport England’s ‘Place Universal Offer’ across Bedfordshire, which connects housing and health with physical activity to tackle inequalities in communities.
Kirsty Pepper, Managing Director for the North Counties region at Peabody, said: “We want the places our residents call home to support them to live healthy, active and fulfilling lives. That means thinking beyond the homes themselves and looking at how neighbourhoods, green spaces and local opportunities can make it easier for people to be active and connect with their communities.
“Welcoming the TCPA to the partnership brings valuable expertise that will help us turn that ambition into practical action. By working together, we can better understand what makes a real difference to residents and help create healthier places where people can thrive.”
Gemma Hyde, Projects and Policy Manager at the TCPA, said: “Where people live has a profound influence on their opportunities to be healthy and active. Housing providers have an important role to play, not just through the homes they provide but through the neighbourhoods, spaces and partnerships they help shape.
We’re really pleased to join the Healthy Places and Communities Partnership and to bring our healthy placemaking and long-term stewardship expertise into a collaboration that is focused on turning that understanding into practical action for communities.”