Camden gets three stars for housing management service

The council manages more than 34,000 homes in north London and inspectors called its management service "well managed, well planned and innovative".

It was the first council to be given three stars for its £50m housing capital programme, earlier this year.

Chief inspector Roy Irwin said: "We were particularly impressed with Camden's creative and broad approach to tackling antisocial behaviour and harassment."

Camden's housing director Neil Litherland said: "Getting a three-star rating for two of our services shows the tremendous progress we have made in turning around the housing service in Camden."

The Audit Commission has released a set of "quality-of-life indicators" that include affordable housing.

The indicators are designed to allow people to see how well their area is doing in terms of quality of the living environment, and other factors including crime and pollution control.

The indicators are not a statutory requirement, but the commission warned quality of life issues were rising on the agenda.