Review of post-occupancy evaluation
This review of post-occupancy evaluation (POE) is a summary of research commissioned by the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC)
The original research brief provided by DLUHC acknowledged that POE is not widely used, but that they wished to understand more precisely why this is the case.
DLUHC aimed to further explore the extent that POE can be beneficial and used to ensure continual improvement – both in the design of homes but also recording resident responses on a wider scale for new neighbourhoods.
The aims of this report are therefore to review and answer the following research questions:
- Is current POE just focused on the home or does it take account of the challenges/benefits that residents are experiencing in new neighbourhoods? What are the challenges with gathering this information?
- What sectors are consistently preparing POE? Where are the good examples of housing POE?
- Can POE help with behaviour change and encouraging residents to improve their knowledge of green technologies and understand the workings and benefits of a low carbon home?
- What can be done nationally to encourage the use of POE? Is this something that should sit in national policy or guidance, for example? Is it reasonable that it is a requirement for government funding for new homes?
The report also shares case studies of post-occupancy evaluation done well.