Quality of life mapping: Harlow and Gilston Garden Town

Client: Harlow & Gilston Garden Town

Project type: Quality of Life Mapping

Location: Harlow and Gilston and the surrounding areas

Timeline: April 2022-January 2023

Reports: Your Quality of Life community feedback report and Your Quality of Life reflections and recommendations report

What was the project?

Harlow and Gilston was designated as a garden town by the Department for Homes, Communities and Local Government in January 2017. In total, 16,000 new homes will be delivered by 2033, with a further 7,000 planned for the Gilston area to be built from 2033 onwards.

But how could Harlow and Gilston Garden Town (HGGT) – the partnership of local authorities – measure the impact of such a significant period of change, and involve local people in that process?

With PropTech funding from the Department for Levelling Up Housing and Communities, HGGT commissioned the Quality of Life Foundation to deliver ‘Your quality of life’ – a social value mapping and monitoring project via digital and in-person engagement across the Garden Town.

We worked with expert partners to build a clear picture of what people currently value, need and dislike in their local area, alongside socio-economic and environmental data,  to establish a quality of life baseline for the garden town area.

The baseline will be used to support master planning and stewardship arrangements for the Garden Town, and to shape strategies and delivery of development. It’ll also enable monitoring of any changes to quality of life and social value in relation to the growth in the area.

The methodology for this project came out of the UKRI-funded research project, Community Consultation for Quality of Life (CCQOL). We’re collaborating on that major project with the universities of Reading, Cardiff, Ulster and Edinburgh.

This is an example of our Quality of Life Mapping service.

What did we do?

We were commissioned to manage the ‘Your quality of life’ project and contracted Stantec for their expertise in data management and local community organisation Rainbow Services to support us with face-to-face engagement. HGGT contracted Commonplace to provide the digital engagement platform.

We developed a practical, standardised approach to measuring and monitoring the constituent parts of social value in the built environment.

Using the Quality of Life Framework as the basis of the work, our overall approach was to collect, organise and spatially map existing socio-economic and environmental data alongside data gathered in an extensive engagement programme with local people. By combining these different types of data, we generated a baseline for social value in the area, based on both quantitative and qualitative evidence.

From 14th July to 14th October 2022, we worked with these partners to gather and organise socio-economic data about residents in the area and to engage with the local community, both online and face-to-face.

During the engagement programme, we gathered residents’ opinions through the ‘Your Quality of Life’ Commonplace platform. People could comment about their own wellbeing and day-to-day life, spanning our six quality of life themes. The open platform was a chance for people to also see what others said and to ‘like’ others’ posts. Our engagement methods were varied. We combined digital and face-to-face methods to support local people to get involved in different ways.

We pooled questions for the survey from a variety of sources to help us capture thoughts and opinions about the local area whilst allowing us to compare the findings to national survey data.

We combined and spatially mapped the data collected through engagement and the nationally available socio-economic date and created a series of reports for the HGGT board and community, as well as for the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities.

The final report – a Quality Monitoring Framework – will enable HGGT to measure the social impact of changes within the area on the people living there.

What was the impact?

We can only design with community in mind when we understand what the community needs, which is why it is so important to understand those needs from the very beginning of a development process.

Part of that process must involve the input of those people living there, both for the knowledge acquired through lived experience and for the sense of influence or agency that it gives, enhancing people’s health and wellbeing.

Our extensive engagement more than tripled the number of people taking part in conversations about their local area, compared to previous Garden Town consultations. It also increased participation from both younger people under 35 and those over 75, from people in ethnic minority communities, and from people who have a disability or long-term illness.

This project focused on people’s quality of life in Harlow, Gilston and surrounding areas. It is part of ongoing efforts to ensure that the health and wellbeing of current and future residents is protected and promoted to the highest standard.

By combining existing data about the local population with comments made by individuals through consultation, the five local authorities in the Garden Town area are now better placed to develop evidence-based interventions and to assess the impact of any changes that may occur over the coming years.

Next steps

With additional funding from DLUHC, the next stage of the project. take place in summer 2023. This will see the creation of an online platform to make the data readily available to both local authority officials and the general public. This will ensure that any decisions taken by HGGT can be based on evidence that can be seen and understood by as many people as possible.

We hope that this will provide a model for other local authorities for gathering and using information in a way that involves the local community, not just in its collection but its ongoing use. This should increase participation in the planning process and empower local people in the decisions affecting their local area.