Last updated at 19:31, Thursday, 28 June 2012

A Workington social landlord has won awards at a national awards night.

Westfield Housing Association, based at the Minto Centre in Westfield, won the small housing association of the year and landlord of the year awards at the 2012 UK Housing Awards in London on Wednesday.

Winning the small housing award came as a surprise to its staff, as they said they weren’t originally going to enter the awards and were contacted by the organisers who gave them an extended deadline to get their application in.

The second surprise came when they won the overall landlord of the year award, a category they didn’t realise they were entered automatically into.

Graham Howarth, director, said: “It’s a reward for all the staff and all the work they do. I suspect we won because of the work we did developing the Minto Centre and Footsteps Nursery.”

Mr Howarth was accompanied by Joan Minto, chairman and an association tenant, to the awards night at the Hilton Hotel in London.

The housing association bought the former Westfield Infant School building in 2004 and spent nearly £700,000 turning it into the Minto Centre.

Under the ownership of the association, Footsteps Nursery, at the centre, has grown from having 28 children and five staff on its roll to 145 children and 26 staff.

First published at 19:24, Thursday, 28 June 2012
Published by http://www.timesandstar.co.uk