Specialist housing for older people in an era of neoliberal transformation: exploring provision in England

Abstract

Specialist housing for older people is an important welfare service and integral part of the housing offer in many countries. An extensive evidence base details the relative merits of different modes of provision, but little light has been cast on the forces shaping provision and the interests served. Drawing on a new model of demand and supply of specialist provision in England at the local authority level, this study addresses this lacuna. Two key contributions are made to knowledge and understanding. First, the uneven landscape of specialist housing provision is charted and the extent to which this maps onto need is revealed. Second, this condition is explained by situating specialist housing within wider debates about the reimagining of housing systems driven by the neoliberal transformation of housing politics, and recognising that these processes can have uneven effects embedded in the nature of places.