National quality of life survey launched

Today, we launched a national survey — the largest of its kind undertaken across the UK in over a decade — to understand how people think about places and communities to learn what quality of life means to homeowners and tenants and how they think it might be enhanced through improvements to the built environment.

This qualitative survey, to be undertaken by Social Life and Kaizen Partnership, will focus on residents living in a diverse range of communities, from urban to rural, small to large, new build and more established neighbourhoods.

The results of this survey will inform our work in establishing a clear set of quality of life principles, which will then be championed by us, with the aim of making clear both the responsibilities and benefits of promoting quality of life within the built environment.

Ultimately, we aim to establish a framework and set of mechanisms that drives change across the development industry to ensure that homes and places are acquired, planned, constructed and managed to actively provide a better quality of life.

Professor Sadie Morgan said: “The built environment plays such an important role in shaping peoples’ quality of life and it is absolutely vital that, as we look to build the 300,000 homes per year needed to tackle the housing crisis, we focus resolutely on creating places that have a positive impact on residents’ wellbeing and are good for the environment.

“Establishing this expert advisory board is the first important step in The Quality of Life Foundation’s mission to champion a new set of principles and mechanisms that will ensure that the built environment can deliver its full potential to improve people’s quality of life. We want to see more homes and communities that prioritise people’s physical, social and psychological wellbeing over the long term.

“Our review of existing research from across the built environment has already identified a glaring gap in our knowledge of how to build successful places and communities — and that is we know very little about what people actually think about the places they live and how they can be improved. That’s why we are launching a national survey that will help inform our work in developing a set of quality of life principles and we hope that the built environment industry will come together and support our important work.”