Post-occupancy evaluation: Clarion Housing’s 2050 Neighbourhood Standard
Client: Clarion Housing Group
Project type: Post occupancy evaluation
Number of sites: 3
Location: Moulsecoomb, Brighton & Hove (Sussex) Wisbech, Fenland (Cambridgeshire), Orpington, Bromley (Greater London)
What was the project?
In 2022 the Quality of Life Foundation supported Clarion Housing Group to conduct a pilot process to test the housing association’s new 2050 Neighbourhood Standard. This was a first-of-its-kind project: it used our Resident Review post-occupancy evaluation methodology to review existing estates and settled neighbourhoods..
Clarion’s Neighbourhood Standard Toolkit is powered by the Quality of Life Framework. It uses the Framework themes to guide and define Clarion’s 2050 principles, which will be used to measure how each neighbourhood achieves the standard.
The aim of this project was to test the Neighbourhood Standard at a local level in order to ensure it reflects what residents believe it means to live in a good neighbourhood. We also sought to understand any local issues in the neighbourhoods we worked in, as well as the causes of these.
Finally, the project aimed to test the types of questions Clarion would need to ask residents to understand, measure and report on residents’ lived experience. As such, it equipped staff to conduct quality of life surveys and to interpret the findings.
What was the impact?
This pilot project will enable Clarion to continue the conversations with residents and community partners about health and wellbeing in these areas. It will shape their decision making and action plans for stock investment and community investment for quality of life in these locations and across other sites. It will also inform their social impact and ESG reporting for the business and to their investors.
The project provided value to different stakeholders:
- Residents and communities: The project provided another platform for residents to tell their landlord about lived experiences and the quality of their area ranging from a sense of community to anti-social behaviour.
- Clarion’s service delivery teams: The project provided an avenue for staff working on the ground to highlight local issues, resources needed to improve neighbourhoods, and structures needed to support residents in the context of quality of life.
- Clarion’s leadership and executive teams: The project provided an evidence base on what Clarion residents are saying about quality of life in their neighbourhoods and what ‘good looks like’ to inform Clarion’s investment in their housing and communities.
What did they say?
“We started working with Quality of Life Foundation in 2022 following a series of resident and staff workshops to help us understand what a ‘good’ neighbourhood looks like. The Foundation’s commitment to improving people’s quality of life caught our attention as it resonated with our own, and their framework included several themes residents and staff told us were important. Together we developed the Clarion Neighbourhood Standard (Powered by QoLf).
“Their expertise in research and engagement helped us test our framework and develop a suite of tools built upon what we already do well. It’s been a pleasure to work so closely with such passionate individuals and organisation.”