The changing management of social housing: The impact of externalisation and managerialisation

The paper examines how the New Public Management (NPM) project has reshaped housing management in England and Wales. Historical tensions concerning the nature and scope of housing management, and its recent establishment as a public sector profession, have been exacerbated by NPM. In particular, the two central NPM processes of externalisation and managerialisation have led to the provision of new social housing by housing associations and the development of rationalistic management. By exploring the changing nature of housing management in externalised housing associations, the paper illustrates the complex ways in which property and welfare-based approaches to housing management are being played out. It is argued that managerialism has worked to define core business and a property-based approach at the expense of aspects of personal and welfare-based services. This process is being intensified by new technologies as seen through the development of call centres. Housing associations and the regulator have sought to recapture some aspects of the welfare approach to housing management to provide services to increasingly welfare-dependent tenants. However, the paper concludes that the tensions between the property and welfare approaches are likely to lead to the domination of a property-based approach because of the ongoing managerial and external pressures on housing associations.