New road projects should prioritise cyclists, pedestrians and public transport over cars to encourage more physical activity across the UK, the health watchdog has said.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) is urging planners and developers to build “safe, convenient, inclusive” transport infrastructure, which will help people move away from cars to healthier modes of transport. 

In a set of new draft guidelines issued to councils and planners, Nice said the aim is “to get people to be more active in their day-to-day lives by encouraging safe, convenient, active travel that is accessible for everyone, including older people and people with limited mobility”.

The Department for Transport has said it supports Nice’s recommendations, and said its own guidance “is crystal clear that street design should explicitly consider pedestrians and cyclists first”.

In the UK physical inactivity is responsible for one in six deaths and is believed to cost the economy £7.4bn a year, including £900m to the NHS, roughly the same impact as smoking, Nice said.

New laws which could see cyclists who kill treated the same as dangerous drivers have been criticised by Olympic medalist Chris Boardman. The former racing cyclist lost his mother Carol after she was fatally injured following a collision with a car in July 2016.

The 49-year-old, who won gold in the 1992 Olympics, hit out at plans to introduce a criminal offence for causing death by dangerous or careless cycling.

The legislation is being proposed by the Government after 44-year-old mother-of two Kim Briggs was knocked over and killed by a bicycle courier in February 2016.

But Cycling UK head of campaigns Duncan Dollimore described the current system of prosecuting and sentencing for careless or dangerous drivers as “something of a lottery” which leaves victims and their relatives “feeling massively let down”.

He went on: “Adding one or two new offences specific to cyclists would be merely tinkering around the edges.

Mr Boardman added his voice to concerns raised by cycling campaigners that the move was not addressing real threats on the road.

He wrote on Twitter the focus was “on a single tragic case”, when around “66 pedestrians are killed each year, on the pavement alone, by drivers, who are prosecuted for careless driving.

He suggested the Government should consult road fatality statistics before deciding “where to focus resources to save most lives” and went on to criticise an official Conservatives tweet endorsing the law change.