Building for a Healthy Life self-assessment tool: know where your scheme stands
Illustration of an imagined residential neighbourhood and masterplan.
Your team has the drawings, the design discussions and the knowledge of the site. Can someone else follow how you reached your assessment?
Preparing a Building for a Healthy Life self-assessment means bringing those elements together. The result needs to say more than whether a scheme looks promising: it should explain the judgement, identify the evidence and make unresolved matters visible.
BHL Assessments is now live, providing an online workflow for residential schemes in England. Work through all twelve considerations, record your reasoning and see the full indicative result before deciding whether to buy the finalised documents.
Free to draft and preview. When you're ready, it's £450 + VAT to finalise one named scheme and download your Self-Assessment Certificate and Project Pack.
Turn the design discussion into a clear record
Perhaps you are preparing for a client meeting, checking a developing layout or bringing the assessment together alongside a planning submission. Your evidence may sit across drawings, reports and comments from several disciplines.
The challenge is to connect that material to the judgement being made. Which drawing supports this answer? Has it been revised? Is the team describing something the design provides, or something it still hopes to secure?
BHL Assessments gives architects, urban designers, landscape architects, planning consultants, housebuilders and land promoters a structured place to work through those questions. Your team supplies the professional judgement; the tool records it and applies a published rating rule.
Five steps, from first answers to final documents
Explore the assessment and indicative result free; pay when you finalise the record.
1. Start with your scheme
Register and add the project details. Have your current layout and supporting information to hand. You can work at your own pace, with answers saved as you go.
2. Work through the twelve considerations
Answer the questions and add comments explaining your view. Use the assessment to focus the team's discussion, especially where an answer needs input from another discipline.
3. Bring the evidence together
Upload supporting material and identify the location plan. Refer to drawing names and revisions in your comments so that a reader can find the information behind an answer.
4. Preview, discuss and revisit
See the full indicative result free. Read it alongside the answers and evidence. Revisit matters that deserve another look while the scheme and your draft assessment can still develop.
5. Finalise when the record is ready
Complete the required information and declaration, then use a paid assessment or an available allowance to issue the dated documents. Finalisation freezes the assessment, so check that the answers and evidence describe the same version of the scheme.
What does £450 + VAT buy?
The free preview helps you understand the result. Finalisation gives you a dated record of the assessment and the detail behind it, ready to share with those who need to understand your team's position.
Self-Assessment Certificate
The scheme, declarant, assessment reference and recorded position across all twelve considerations.
An illustrative example of the dated Self-Assessment Certificate. View the full-size Certificate and Project Pack.
Project Pack
Your answers, comments, declaration and supporting evidence. Supported PDFs and images are reproduced as appendices; Word files are listed and downloadable separately.
Pay-as-you-go finalisation is £450 + VAT (£540 including VAT) for one named scheme. You can inspect the example output before purchasing. See the current prices and terms of sale.
A practical example: make the qualification visible
Imagine a fictional scheme with a proposed pedestrian connection to an adjoining site. A comment saying “connection shown on plan” leaves an important question unanswered: is delivery agreed?
A more useful working note might read:
“Movement plan MP-03, revision C, shows the proposed connection at the eastern boundary. The layout allows for it; delivery across the adjoining land remains to be agreed.”
This is an illustration of clear referencing, not a model answer or a suggested rating. It shows how the assessment can preserve both the design intention and the qualification. When someone later reads the record, they can see what informed the team's judgement.
The framework and your team’s assessment
The tool uses Building for a Healthy Life, 2026 edition, as updated 7 August 2026. Its questions are BHL Assessments' own wording, with reference to the official framework. It applies BHL Assessments' own published rating rule; the framework does not prescribe that mechanical rule.
The resulting documents record your team's self-assessment. They are not official framework certification, accreditation or an independent review, and do not guarantee planning permission. BHL Assessments Ltd is not the framework author and is not endorsed by its authors, Homes England, Design for Homes or the Design Network.
Three questions before you start
Can I see the result before paying?
Yes. Drafting and the full indicative preview are free. Payment, or an available assessment allowance, is needed to finalise and issue the documents.
Should I use it while the design is developing?
You can prepare and revisit a draft as your design develops. Finalise when you are ready to record a specific position, checking the answers, comments and evidence together first.
What if we want an outside view?
A separate, paid Independent Design Review Panel Assessment can be requested from a finalised self-assessment. The Panel reaches its own findings, which may differ from your team's view. See the Independent Design Review Panel Assessment service and fees.
For transparency: BHL Assessments Ltd and The Design Review Panel are connected companies under common ownership. Panel findings are independent of the self-assessment outcome and fee paid. Neither route guarantees planning permission.
Bring your next scheme
Start with the drawings and information you already have. Work through the considerations, review the indicative result and decide when a finalised record will be useful to your project.
Prefer to see the documents first? Explore the example Certificate and Project Pack.
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