VALE housing chiefs are celebrating after achieving a remarkable turnaround in services in the past two years.

An independent Audit Commission report published today gives the council the highest score possible, with a maximum "three star" rating and "excellent" prospects for further improvement.

Only two years ago, the Audit Commission produced a damning report of the council's housing services, stating that the staff had no cohesive policy on the provision of affordable homes and condemning performance management as "weak".

The Commission also said that the council was failing to meet the need to provide homes in villages where house prices were high and concentrating on providing larger homes to rent when there was a demand for other forms of low cost home ownership.

Now, in its latest report, the Commission inspectors are full of praise for the council, describing its services as "easily accessible", its homelessness preventative work as "effective" and emphasising the high degree of care provided to vulnerable people.

Audit Commission regional head of housing Martin Palmer said: "Wychavon District Council has worked hard to improve housing services over the last two years. The achievement of the top 'three star' score is a testament to the partnership working that staff, councillors and external partners have sustained.

"The homeless service is making quick decisions, providing good quality temporary accommodation and is placing the needs of vulnerable people at the heart of its actions."

The district council, the first in the country to receive a double "excellent" ranking for its housing services, pledged to turn things round following its last report.

Council managing director Jack Hegarty said: "We are very proud of this high achievement in such a short space of time.

"Not only have we surpassed our own promise to turn things around in the next five years but we have got the highest possible ranking which is quite rare.

"This is a great reward for the hard work which our staff have put in but also means our customers can benefit from and excellent service."

Despite the generally glowing tone of the report, the inspectors identified some weaknesses, including lack of clear and stretching targets in some plans; some lack of co-ordination in involving the voluntary sector in policy and strategic development, and insufficiently challenging plans and actions for the private sector.

Inspectors made a number of recommendations to help the service improve further.

These included improved signs on council buildings; development of a clear strategy to achieve value for money across all housing services, and the setting of more challenging targets for bringing empty properties back into use.