Clarion Housing, the UK’s largest housing association, gathers insight into its residents’ lives, wellbeing, behaviours and experiences on a variety of topics, through an annual representative survey of its residents, the Clarion Index.
Enventure Research has undertaken the Index annually since 2017, in addition to a range of other research projects on behalf of Clarion, with the most recent wave taking place between May and June 2024. Each year, 2,000 residents are interviewed via telephone with quotas set on age, gender, ethnicity and region to ensure a representative sample is achieved.
The questionnaire is developed in partnership between Clarion and Enventure Research, and includes a mix of tracking questions alongside new topical questions allowing the exploration of current areas of focus. In recent years more questions have been included around the cost of living to understand how Clarion’s residents are coping with rising food prices and energy bills.
Findings from the Index Survey are used to help shape Clarion’s services, identify needs and target new initiatives to help it best support its residents. For example, following an increase in loneliness reported by respondents, Clarion launched ‘Lend an Ear’, a free befriending services for residents of all ages which matches users with a fully trained volunteer for a weekly or fortnightly chat. Encouragingly, the 2024 Index recorded for the first time an increase in the proportion of residents who say they never feel lonely, and a decrease in the proportion who often or always feel lonely, suggesting that the measures implemented by Clarion are beginning to have a positive effect.
In line with national trends, the findings also highlighted that the proportion of residents reporting having a disability has increased, as well as the proportion of those who are unemployed and not looking for work due to a disability or long-term illness.
Although the proportion of residents reporting that they had got into or increased their household debt to meet day to day costs has decreased for the first time since 2021, many continue to experience difficult financial circumstances, identified by Clarion as a particular area of focus for the coming year.
Clarion’s full report on the 2024 index can be found here.