Whole of government models of estate regeneration: the way forward?

In Australia, 'whole of government' models of regeneration are increasingly presented as the way forward to address inequality on public housing estates. The models involve working in partnership across a range of government and non-government agencies to facilitate integrated service delivery at the local level. However, little is known about the underlying rationale for adoption of these models or how they are working in practice. Hence, this paper is concerned with examining some of the whole of government regeneration approaches, to ascertain what is working well and why, and see what they reveal about the usefulness of different models in addressing inequality on estates. The data is drawn from empirical analysis conducted on five case study regeneration projects, two projects each from South Australia (The Parks and Salisbury North) and Queensland (Manooora and Inala) and one project from New South Wales (Waterloo). All the estates are characterised by concentrations of residents experiencing high levels of poverty and unemployment. The data was collected during 1999/2000 through a variety of methods: a survey questionnaire self-administered to 33 housing authority staff; follow up informal interviews and meetings held during visits to projects in 1999; and analysis of relevant policy documents and reports.