Reimagining the neighbourhood health service: Turning existing places into prevention-focused hubs

This agenda reinforces our long-held position: the future of healthcare depends as much on how existing buildings are reused and adapted as on delivering new facilities. Our experience across community health hubs, civic buildings and mixed-use town centre regeneration schemes shows that neighbourhood health centres need to feel trusted, familiar and accessible, while meeting clinical requirements and supporting multidisciplinary working.

From hospital-centric to neighbourhood-centred care

Neighbourhood Health Centres are intended to reduce pressure on acute hospitals, improve continuity of care and tackle health inequalities by bringing services closer to home.

We have already seen how co-location can make healthcare easier to access and easier to navigate:

• Abbey Area Community Hub in Camden brings community and primary care services together in a single building within a newly shaped public park and forms part of the wider Abbey Road regeneration programme.

• Victoria Square in Braintree is a major town centre regeneration scheme anchored by a health and wellbeing centre, showing how healthcare can sit at the heart of mixed use placemaking.

These projects reflect a simple truth: people are more likely to use services early, and return for ongoing support, when buildings feel welcoming and connected to everyday life.

Repurposing the estate we already have

With public capital targeted and an urgent need to decarbonise, many neighbourhood centres will be delivered through reuse, extension and targeted new build, using a combination of NHS and local authority estate.

This is where our lifecycle perspective and retrofit toolkit support Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) and local authority teams to identify which assets are best suited to become neighbourhood hubs, what level of intervention is required, and how to avoid creating future liabilities.

Design-wise, this often means reworking existing buildings so they function like a modern hub:

• Clear “front doors” and intuitive wayfinding
• Privacy, acoustic control and safe adjacencies for mixed clinical and community uses
• Updating rooms to new standards, making them more accessible and able to function as multipurpose spaces
• Efficient staff oversight without an institutional feel.

Designing for familiarity, trust and inclusion

Neighbourhood centres will often support people who are anxious about healthcare settings, managing long-term conditions, or facing barriers to access. Design directly affects whether these services are used.

We believe in patient-centred environments that support recovery, dignity and inclusion, alongside net zero goals. In practice, that means calm layouts, predictable routes, good daylight, and spaces that give people choice about how they wait, move and engage.

Aligning estates, regeneration and net zero

Neighbourhood health is a place-based agenda. Many centres will sit at the intersection of regeneration, housing, transport and decarbonisation strategies.

That is where our wider regeneration and placemaking experience adds value. Victoria Square shows how mixed-use regeneration can embed healthcare as a driver of town centre vitality, alongside homes, public realm and everyday services.

Abbey Area shows how local authority partnership and community-focused delivery can strengthen neighbourhood identity while improving access to health and community services.

Making neighbourhood health work in practice

Neighbourhood Health Centres represent a major opportunity to improve access to care, support prevention and make better use of public estate. But success depends on more than policy intent. It relies on the right buildings, in the right places, working for communities, clinicians and estates teams alike.

We work with NHS Trusts, Health Boards, Integrated Care Boards and local authorities across the UK to turn existing buildings and town centre assets into prevention-focused neighbourhood health hubs. By combining architecture, building consultancy and placemaking expertise, we help clients align health, regeneration and net zero ambitions into deliverable, long-term solutions.

If you are developing neighbourhood health plans, assessing existing estate, or exploring how healthcare can support wider regeneration objectives, we would welcome a conversation. Get in touch