A CHESTER-le-Street housing association has been highly commended in prestigious national awards.

Cestria Community Housing was recognised in the Social Landlord of the Year (Regional) category of the 2012 Housing Excellence Awards.

Cestria, which runs the town’s former council housing stock, was praised for improving local communities.

In recent years it has refurbished five community rooms, worked to improve tenants’ financial inclusion and teamed up with the Sunderland AFC Foundation to offer activities to young people through its Kickz scheme.

Cestria chief executive Paul Fiddaman said: "We have been working hard to ensure we deliver services which meet the needs of our tenants and people living in our local communities.

"To be recognised for this is fantastic, especially at a national level, and we hope we are flying the flag for the innovative work which is going on across the North-East within the housing sector.

"Most importantly though, we know from talking to our tenants that these projects are having real and lasting results."

An awards ceremony was held on Wednesday (9th May) at Lancashire County Cricket Club.