In December 2003, Brent Primary Care Trust (PCT) commissioned a health impact assessment (HIA) of the Wembley redevelopment proposals. The objective is to make an independent assessment of the actual and potential health impacts, both positive and negative, of the proposals and to make recommendations about how the beneficial effects can be maximised and the adverse ones avoided or minimised.

The recommendations were fed back to the Wembley Strategy Group on 12 February 2004 and are intended to strengthen the proposals before planning permission is sought for them. At the same time, the HIA has been designed to offer opportunities for involving local residents and representatives of local statutory and voluntary organisations to strengthen their involvement in healthy public policy and raise their awareness of health issues.

STAGES OF THE WORK

The main stages involved in the HIA were
· presentation of the outline proposal to the Wembley Strategy Group on 4 December 2003;
· establishment of a small team of public health professionals to carry out the HIA;
· review of the redevelopment proposals, routine data sources and the evidence base in order to provide the background and context for the HIA and to help frame the recommendations;
· collection of qualitative data through a series of rapid HIA workshops ;
· presentation of the findings to the Wembley Strategy Group on 12 February 2004.

FINDINGS

Key issues and health determinants
The key issues which have emerged as high priorities for the local population include opportunities for local people, involvement of the community, quality of life and social cohesion; transport and traffic; employment and unemployment; housing; leisure, arts and culture (including recreation and sports facilities and physical exercise); health and social care facilities; education; and crime.

Potential health impacts

A range of positive health impacts was identified, with most being related to the changes in health status which might be expected to result from shifts in the distribution of wider health determinants such as employment, housing and access to recreation, leisure, health and social care and community facilities.
There are also potential negative health impacts, most notably the potential for exacerbating the existing problems with transport and traffic congestion and the possibility that local people may not benefit from the new employment opportunities. Some “health warnings” have also arisen, for example in relation to housing provision, the potential failure to capitalise on opportunities for providing facilities which are currently missing and the need to ensure that the redevelopment benefits the whole of the Borough, not just the area immediately around
the new National Stadium.
Some of these impacts will be felt in the interim stage, whilst the redevelopment is taking place, and some will be longer term. They are also likely to affect different populations (such as current residents, new residents moving into the area and visitors to the area) in different ways.