The form of human settlements impacts on planetary health, population health and health equity. Yet goals for urban and territorial planning are only tangentially linked to public health outcomes. The WHO and UN-Habitat support actions to bring health to the fore in planning and design of human settlements, recently publishing Integrating Health in Urban and Territorial Planning: a sourcebook focusing on why action is needed, how to initiate it; and curating several existing resources on what to do. Recommendations for research, policy and practice include calls for rapid development of closer relationships between public health and spatial planning.