As the number of older people increases, the need for housing and services grows. A unique project, started in northern Europe, provides a platform for sharing best practices, within appropriate cultural contexts, for supportive local housing for a range of needs. These Integrated Service Areas (ISAs) provide a range of co‐located and locally integrated services in small communities. This paper presents preliminary research that points towards greater satisfaction, feelings of security and longer housing independence among those living in ISAs compared with other elders. We argue that ISAs represent a useful example of possible housing arrangement for older people and that similar projects in different cultures could be implemented in order to improve the quality of life and housing for older persons. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

BOOK REVIEWSHolme's book contains a richness of individual experience which is lacking in much of the contemporary housing literature. For this it should be welcomed and widely read. But the contemporary housing literature contains a lot of policy analysis and comment and very little sociology. The method and style of this study promised a conclusion which focused on the sociology of house and home -issues of status, patriarchy, privatisation and the meaning of the home. In the end these isssues were dealt with cursorily if at all. Instead there was a slightly disappointing discussion of housing policy and housing management. It was disappointing in the sense that it did not flow easily and naturally from the preceding chapters. It also required a much fuller appreciation of recent work on the political economy of housing in explaining the changing role of council housing. In the end one is left with the feeling that the right method had been adopted to discuss the wrong issues.