Bureaucratic encounters "after neoliberalism": Examining the supportive turn in social housing governance.

It is well established that encounters between welfare bureaucracies and their clients have been reconfigured under neoliberalism to address the problem of "welfare dependency." Contemporary bureaucratic encounters therefore entail measures to activate clients' entrepreneurial/self-governing capacities, and conditionality/sanctioning practices to deal with clients who behave "irresponsibly." Despite the dominance of the neoliberal model, recent research has identified a counter-trend in the practices of housing services away from entrepreneurializing and punitive strategies and towards a more supportive approach.

Homes Too Large for Household Needs? Under-Occupancy as Policy Problem and Lived Experience among Older Social Housing Tenants.

Rising demand for social housing has induced housing authorities to find ways to increase the utilisation of existing housing stock, including targeting households thought to be living in homes that are larger than they need. This "under-occupation" of social housing is common among older tenants who, as with other under-occupiers, have been subject to unpopular measures designed to encourage downsizing. Yet little attention has been given to the housing needs of under-occupying older tenants and the ability of the social housing sector to meet those needs.

Lofty ambitions need DIY conversions.

S Collins asked how she can get support for her EN conversion course (Information Exchange, February 2). The answer is to pay for yourself, if you can't get your employer to help.