A HOSPITAL trust has been awarded an £8million grant for a new study looking at ways to improve people's health in the Bradford district. 

Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said the four-year project, called Healthy Urban Places, will form part of the newly-established UK Research and Innovation Population Health Improvement UK initiative.

The trust is only one of four to be awarded a grant for the project, which is now underway.

The study will look at how and why health is affected by local environments including parks, clean air, quality housing, public transport, and access to schools and services.

Its aim will be to directly influence decisions aimed at improving people's health locally.

The project will also work with researchers in Liverpool, harnessing existing research initiatives - including the Born in Bradford and Children Growing Up in Liverpool cohorts, which together will be tracking the health and well-being of more than 70,000 families.

Professor Rosie McEachan, director of Born in Bradford, is chief investigator and will lead on the project.

She said: "Much preventable illness such as depression, chronic disease and obesity is impacted by where we live.

"In cities, pollution, lack of places to play and socialise, lack of parks, poor-quality housing, lack of health services, poor public transport, anti-social behaviour and lack of availability of cheap, healthy food all contribute to ill health.

"If we can improve the places we live, then we can improve the health of our population.

"With the Healthy Urban Places project, we will bring together local communities, decision-makers and researchers to design 'health' into urban planning, making our cities healthier and happier places to live and thrive."

Healthy Urban Places is a project between the Bradford Institute for Health Research, which is based at the trust, the universities of Bradford, Liverpool, York and Leeds, Bradford Council, University College London, Imperial College London and ISGlobal, a scientific research centre based in Spain.

A trust spokesperson said: "Two 'community collaboratives' in Bradford and Liverpool will be established to bring together communities, researchers and decision-makers to guide the work.

"The collaboratives will train local people to become peer researchers who will speak to more than 1,000 residents to explore what makes a healthy place.

"They will work with key stakeholders and decision makers to look into how place-based changes impact on the health of communities in Bradford and Liverpool."