'Just do it'

"Staff now come to me asking if they can do something and I can say 'just do it.' Previously, on a lot of occasions it might have been 'Well, we'll think about that …'. It's been a breath of fresh air for everybody. You can focus more on the business and we're in the business of letting homes."

Under Broadbent's stewardship, First Choice has been doing rather more than that since it was set up last April. Whereas many ALMOs are tied up in protracted rounds of bidding for cash, awaiting inspection reports and debates surrounding their role, in Oldham much is already being achieved.

Last month, First Choice became the first of the second-round ALMOs to win the two-star inspection rating that would let it get its hands on £72m in government money for improvements. Its repairs service not only works on the council's stock but picks up other contracts and turns a healthy profit; its 60 security staff also sell services to other organisations and the ALMO has been carving out a development role for itself.

The strategy behind this success is not for the fainthearted: First Choice has taken a financial risk at which many others might baulk. Broadbent used the working balance that bolsters the housing revenue account to bring the repairs service up to the standard needed to get the two stars. This left the HRA with a float of just £750,000 – not a lot, considering the sums that go in and out.

But it worked. First Choice's fine-tuned repairs service not only helped it scoop the two-star rating and the £72m, it makes money that can be ploughed back into homes by maintaining schools, public buildings and 700 homes for Portico Housing Association. Broadbent says it draws in a surplus well in excess of the 6% expected when it was part of the council – helping to bolster First Choice's income as its rented stock depletes (it took on 18,500 properties, but expects to lose a total of 4500 through stock transfer, the private finance initiative and demolition).

The six-figure sums First Choice earns from United Utilities by collecting tenants' water charges with their weekly rent also helps. "The council's income is going down, but demand for services is going the other way," says Broadbent.

Inspectors, though, were not impressed: alongside the two-star rating came a rap over the knuckles for the method that had been used. "They felt we were taking a high level of risk, but it wasn't as if we went into it blindly," says Broadbent. "Everyone at the council signed up to it – the treasurer, the auditors. It was a risk worth taking if it helped us to get to two stars – you've got to speculate to accumulate, and we had to invest money in the repairs service to get the two stars."

You’ve got to speculate to accumulate, and we had to invest in the repairs service to get the two stars

With this hard-nosed financial approach, you might expect Broadbent to have a background in private industry. In fact, 51-year-old Broadbent trained as a planner and worked on private sector developments before jumping the fence to join Newcastle's housing department in 1981. After moving up through the ranks at Newcastle and Bolton councils, he became director of housing at Oldham council in 1995. He was also a founder member of the North-west Housing Forum, the body that campaigned for a market renewal fund.

The business of management
Broadbent would like to see ALMOs get more financial freedoms and is not ideologically opposed to borrowing from the private sector. He says: "ALMOs need a secure long-term financial future so they can do business without having to lunge from crisis to crisis."

The freedom to be enterprising has been crucial to First Choice Homes' success, he says. It has an 18-strong main board and six local boards, and their attitude has been very helpful: "Our board and council were prepared to let go and let us become more enterprising. If it had been shoulder-length rather than arm's-length, we would not have succeeded in the same way."

Yet while First Choice, which has 750 staff, handles many services that other ALMOs choose to leave at the council and buy back – another of the secrets of its success, according to Broadbent – it is not one of the housing providers clamouring for more power to dish out antisocial behaviour orders. Oldham hit the headlines in 2001 thanks to a summer of serious racial disturbances; in response, the council set up a community safety team and Broadbent is happy to leave the legwork to the specialists.

First Choice does, though, act as the council's managing agent on the regeneration of the two-hectare St Mary's estate in central Oldham, coordinating Portico Housing Association and contractor Gleeson in a scheme to build 12 housing association homes and 90 for outright sale. First Choice is also handling the handover of 1700 homes to a private finance initiative consortium, for which the government has already agreed £58m in credit. Four consortia are in the running and Broadbent hopes the deal will be signed by summer 2004.

The happy relationship between council and ALMO was commended in the inspection report, but Broadbent foresees tension when the ALMO carries out its necessary best value review of services. With more than 100 vans, the housing department has always been the biggest user of the council's transport deal, using £500,000 worth of services a year. It is currently being retendered and First Choice can choose to opt out. "There are severe implications for the service, and the finger could be pointing at us saying 'you caused that'," says Broadbent.