A new digital Connectivity Tool has been unveiled to help planners ensure that homes, workplaces and essential services are better linked through sustainable transport options.
This online resource allows planning and built-environment professionals across England and Wales to assess how accessible a location is by assigning it a ‘connectivity score’. The score reflects how easily people can reach key destinations—such as schools, health facilities, shopping areas and employment sites—via walking, cycling or public transport.
Both the full version of the Connectivity Tool and a streamlined public-facing version, Connectivity Tool Lite, are now available for use.
While sustainable transport has long been a priority within the UK’s planning framework, measuring what makes a location genuinely sustainable in transport terms has often been difficult. The new tool addresses this gap by integrating transport data with land-use information to deliver the first standardised national measure of connectivity.
Following the release of a trial version last summer, the complete tool is now open to planners, and communities can use the lite tool to gain insight into how effectively their local area is linked to everyday services.
The tool aims to create a consistent, data-driven benchmark that will:
- Guide development towards areas where sustainable travel options are strong
- Help local authorities, developers and planners make informed decisions on site selection and infrastructure needs
- Improve access for communities that have historically been poorly served by transport links
- Support wider economic growth by making sure transport investment opens up new opportunities across England and Wales
Lilian Greenwood, Minister for Local Transport, said:
“Transport is central to unlocking growth. The Connectivity Tool gives planners and professionals the evidence they need to make better decisions about where development should happen, ensuring communities are well connected to jobs and services.
“By making the tool widely available, we are setting a new national standard for measuring connectivity and supporting sustainable growth across England and Wales.”
The tool is already influencing major development initiatives, including planning for new towns. It is helping decision-makers identify how emerging communities can be designed to be sustainable, accessible and aligned with the principles recommended by the New Towns Taskforce.
