THE AUDIT Commission has praised Great Places Housing Group after meeting staff and seeing its work in action.

The group works in 30 local authority areas including Burnley where it is well-known for its new family eco-homes at Hurtley Street, Daneshouse, and community development work including promoting awareness of healthy lifestyles.

After visiting last winter, the Audit Commission has now released its verdict that Great Places has ‘excellent prospects’ to carry on improving.

Experts have already reported that Great Places had “more strengths than weaknesses” in each of the three key service areas inspected and made recommendations.

Since then, Great Places have put together an action plan to address areas for improvement, asking almost 400 customers for their input.

As a result, inspectors have declared that Great Places has ‘excellent prospects’ for getting better and improving the inspected services – the best possible score available.

The finding is based on how the group manages performance, plans ahead and on our track record for delivering improvements. Stephen Porter, chief executive of Great Places Housing Group, said: “This is a superb result and fantastic recognition for all the work we do.

“Overall, the inspectors say our strengths outweigh our weaknesses. Coupled with our ‘excellent prospects’, this puts us in the top performing quarter of housing associations in the UK.”