ALMO bids to sell its services outside local authority area

One of the best-performing arm's-length management organisations is aiming to be the first to sell its services to housing providers across the UK.

Derby Homes, one of only four ALMOs to achieve the top Audit Commission rating of "excellent", is also edging closer to its second deal to supply services to housing providers in Derby.

The ALMO asked its city council yesterday for permission to redefine its core business activities so it can provide management and maintenance services outside the council boundary.

The proposal was due to go before the council yesterday and an agreement is expected by early May.

It is not certain whether the change will require the consent of the ODPM, which Derby Homes has kept informed of its intentions. An ODPM spokeswoman said the ALMO was unlikely to need a revision to the regulatory order under which it operates, but that it was the council's duty to check.

For the past eight months, Derby Homes has been managing 80 properties for Wallbrook Housing Association on an estate where it is the main landlord. According to the ALMO, the estate has gone from having numerous voids to almost full occupation.

Now Derby Homes hopes to "imminently" take responsibility for the management and maintenance of 200 homes in Derby owned by Northern Counties Housing Association, according to Shaun Bennett, the ALMO's director of investment and regeneration.

He said: "We have an established team that has delivered 5000 decent homes a year [since 2003]; we've got a strong relationship with our contractors. Some organisations don't have that and we want to sell them our expertise."

ALMOs have recently been urging the government to allow them to broaden their original remit, which was to deliver decent homes, to such activities as development.

They believe it would help maintain their long-term viability as their revenues fall because of high levels of right to buy sales – Derby lost 400 homes that way in 2003/4.