We must not forget the power of play

The National Planning Policy Framework is a positive step towards increasing and accelerating affordable housing supply. But, will our built environment fail children and young people? Andy Hulme, Hyde’s Group Chief Executive Officer, asks if this is a ‘crisis hiding in plain sight’.

At Hyde, we understand the importance of not just providing great homes, but great outdoor spaces. We want our customers to feel proud of where they live and their communal spaces - whether it’s playgrounds, community centres or community gardens.

We also know how important play is – not just for children, but communities.

Our recent Community and Place Standard highlights our commitment to promoting health and wellbeing, emphasising the importance of safe, inclusive and well-located play areas.

For children, playgrounds are much more than just a place to have fun — they’re essential for learning and development. Playground play encourages social skills (encouraging social interaction), outdoor physical activity (important for mental and physical wellbeing), leadership skills and cognitive and emotional development.

And of course, play areas are particularly important for children who may not have outside space attached to their home.

Play areas also encourage communities to be inclusive and connected (particularly if there are tables and benches) and bring communities together – providing a safe place for children and adults to be active.

Our play and communal area project

We’ve already started a £10m+ investment programme in our community centres and over the next two years, we’re further investing in our play and communal spaces. This will vary from sprucing and tidying them up, to upgrading to full scale flagship playgrounds. We’re working with our contractors, partners and residents in the co-design of these spaces to reflect communities’ priorities.

For example, we’re creating a flagship play and communal space on our Studley Estate in Lambeth – we want an inclusive communal space for different age groups. We’ve scheduled workshops with our community partners, Young People Matter, to ensure residents are at the centre of decision making.

We’ve also completed an extensive consultation process on our Pheonix Estate, in Brighton – where we wanted to optimise the physical health and wellbeing of our residents. This led to us to transforming an existing play area into a gymnasium for the local community.

Our play and communal area project will extend to other London boroughs including Lewisham, Islington, Croydon and Brent. The project will also focus on outer London districts including Midhurst, Chichester and Mid Sussex.

Yes to ball games

We want to be part of a much-needed conversation about how to encourage and support children to play more. The Pro Play Network is made up of 11 housing associations and other like-minded organisations, coming together to improve the experience of play for children and young people living in social housing. The network focuses on key topics such as the removal of ‘No Ball Games’ signs where possible and influencing change at policy level.

We’re all familiar with these signs around estates and other city spaces where there is a perception that children and play aren’t wanted. With children’s physical and mental health at crisis point, how can we deny children the chance to move, socialise, play and enjoy themselves in the fresh air, on their own doorstep.

We’re encouraging the removal of unnecessary ball game signs on estates. Instead, we’re encouraging residents to use these spaces responsibly and considerably. We’ll be looking at our playgrounds and asking: is this playground too close to a road? (So, ball games could be dangerous); are they inclusive? And exploring whether trees could be planted to help reduce noise.

We’re also currently working with over 60 community partners to distribute over 2,000 basketballs to promote play - encouraging physical and mental health.

The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) is the single most important national government planning policy document, and these policies will have a huge impact on children’s lives, including their ability to play outside and near their home.

We welcome the proposed changes to the NPPF – they signify a positive step towards increasing and accelerating affordable housing delivery.

Hyde plans to build more than 5,500 homes over the next five years, boosting the number of social housing homes will have long-term socio-economic benefits.

However, as much as we need to build new homes, we need to consider that vital communal space as well. When designing their developments, developers must consider how they can maximise communal space for play and places where communities can come together. We know that access to safe, recreational spaces is essential for everyone, but in particular we need it for young people, particularly those in lower income families.

The work we do with children and young people, thanks to Hyde Charitable Trust, is a real priority at Hyde. This, ranges from running holiday clubs and activities, to recognising the importance of young residents having a voice, as our work with Partnership with Young London and their ‘Shaping Housing Futures’ report has highlighted. And, because we know that the cost of living crisis has meant that buying school uniform is an even bigger concern than usual, we’ve launched a campaign to support families with primary school age children with their uniform costs.

So, as a sector, while we focus on housing supply and affordability, let’s also focus our attention to play and our communal space and let’s also acknowledge that play areas are vital for children to play, learn and grow.

This piece first appeared in Inside Housing on 18 August 2025.