Duncan Hames presents Selwood Housing with top award for customer service and visits new homes in Broughton Gifford

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Wed 29th Jul 2009

Duncan Hames, the prospective Lib Dem MP for the Chippenham constituency, has presented Selwood Housing with the award for Quality Housing Standard for customer service.

John Alford, chair of Selwood Housing said: "The Quality Housing Standard recognises the effort that we put into providing excellent customer service. We were judged by mystery shoppers and auditors across 10 areas including our rent payment service, how we handle complaints, how we manage our estates and our reception and telephone services. In order to keep the mark we will be judged again every year to make sure that we aren't resting on our laurels and that we are still focused on providing excellent customer service."

Duncan Hames said: "This award is testament to the hard work of many staff at Selwood, and I congratulate them all on this achievement. It seems that both inspectors and tenants have been giving the team here their seal of approval."

During his visit Duncan also visited Selwood Housing's new homes in Broughton Gifford. The homes were developed for people with connections to the village after it was found that there was very little housing that local people could afford. The nine new homes are resplendent with solar panels and NIBE systems that recycle the water in the atmosphere from the kitchen and the bathroom to provide hot water and under-floor heating.

Commenting on the new homes Duncan said: "I know from my time as a West Wiltshire district councillor how important securing affordable housing for local people has been to Broughton Gifford. Parish councillors here have been working long and hard with their partners, especially Selwood, to make it happen. I was particularly impressed with the quality of this appropriately small development, and the measures that have been taken to reduce the environmental impact of these new homes."

For more information please go to: http://www.selwoodhousing.com