Councillors have been asked to approve an amalgamation of housing associations which could free up �1m a year to be reinvested into services for social tenants.

The Flagship Group hopes to combine its parent company with the three subsidiaries through which it owns and manages 22,000 homes across the region – Peddars Way, Suffolk Heritage and Kings Forest.

The '1Future' proposal is expected to make an initial annual saving of �800,000 – eventually rising to �1m – by combining the resources of all four current organisations under the control of a single board.

The resulting savings would be reinvested into services including a 24/7 freephone number, 15 extra community rangers, new customer service stations and a community improvement fund.

But the scheme requires the approval of regulators and local authorities, including Breckland Council, which transferred its housing stock to Flagship's management in 1993.

A report to Breckland's cabinet acknowledges the potential benefits for tenants and recommends the scheme should be approved when members meet on January 11.

But as the proposal would also result in the deregulation of the council's stock transfer organisation, conditions are suggested to ensure any new organisation adheres to the obligations of the original transfer agreement.

The report says: 'As Flagship Peddars Way is the council's stock transfer organisation and largest (and often monopoly) social landlord in certain parts of the district, officers would request that, should consent be forthcoming, that this is structured accordingly to allow for the relationship with the new organisation to develop in such as way as to protect the council's existing and future interests.'

If the 1Future proposal is agreed, the new joint board will be headed by Peter Lakey, who was appointed Flagship chairman in November.

Mr Lakey said: 'The main rationale behind this is that, at the moment, we have got 40 board members and four sets of board meetings throughout the year. When we have amalgamated we will have 15 board members, which will then be reduced to 12. There are also other big savings, like the preparation of our annual accounts and annual reports to our regulators.

'Members from all local authorities are feeling the pinch from cuts in government money, so they should see the sense in this proposal.'