Nottingham City Homes has carried out more than 114,000 repairs during 2007-08, one of a number of achievements set out in its annual report.

Over 2007-08 Nottingham City Homes (NCH) has focussed on improving its customer service, giving tenants more ways to get involved and improving the quality of its estates and repairs service.

Its 'lets make the difference' campaign used workshops, focus groups and discussion to help train employees to embed basic principles of good customer service across the organisation.

The organisation has also been successful in winning the £142 million Nottingham City Council tender to carry out all repairs for the next five years.

In addition to this the company now has a dedicated team that has reduced the number of lettable vacant properties across the city - known as voids - by 31 per cent. This has resulted in £500,000 of extra rent, which is put straight back into improving its services.

In June 2007 it launched its Tenant and Leaseholder Participation Compact 2007-10. This agreement with its tenants marked the start of a whole new culture for Nottingham City Homes.

Tenants and leaseholders now inspect estates, take part in mystery shopping exercises and become part of forums and the Board.

Homelink, its choice-based lettings service, has been operating for 12 months, during which time NCH has carried out a comprehensive review of the service.

This November NCH will be inspected by the Audit Commission. In preparation for this, last October an independent organisation, the Housing Quality Network, carried out a mock inspection of its services. It highlighted 'some really positive improvements' and said it believed that 'NCH can achieve two stars at its inspection'.

A successful inspection will release £243million of Government and Nottingham City Council funding which NCH says will be used to improve the standard of council homes in Nottingham under its Secure Warm Modern programme.

Chris Langstaff, chief executive of Nottingham City Homes, said: "The improvements we have made over the past year are helping us to build a strong foundation for the future of Nottingham City Homes.

"Our vision is to create 'homes and places where people want to live'. To achieve this we must strive to be a stable organisation that provides excellent services and is a good place to work. I believe we are making great strides on the way to achieving this."