The Derbyshire scheme covers four local authorities and handles nearly 30,000 bids a year from more than 11,000 housing applicants.

The scheme went live in February 2007 and was the first in the country to allow applicants from any part of the scheme to apply for any property within the scheme advertised by any partner.

Derbyshire’s Home-Options works on a fortnightly bid cycle and carries all the available properties for letting on its website. In the last year Home-Options carried nearly 3000 adverts leading to some 1550 completed lets.

The scheme also offers applicants the widest range of housing options of any other LHS managed scheme in the country – everything from mutual exchange to properties advertised by private landlords. Information on all their services can be provided in large print, on disc, in Braille and translated into at least six other languages.