Easington District Council housing repairs and maintenance are among the "poorest" in the country, an Audit Commission report has found.

The service provided for council housing tenants is today rated as "poor" by the Audit Commission, which gave the council's service none out of three stars, putting it in the country's bottom 20 per cent.

Housing inspectors found that it had no challenging targets and low standards of customer care, and that tenants were not involved enough in raising standards.

They also criticised the service for having no effective appointments system or tenants handbook.

Serious problems highlighted in the report included the council spending 60 per cent of its budget on responsive repairs - 20 per cent more than recommended; and that single-trade repair staff resulted in extra disruption.

The report also found that there was a 46-week waiting list for new doors and windows and that repainting was only done every eight years.

The report criticised the lack of provisions for those with disabilities, especially literacy problems, and described the 105 days taken to re-let empty homes as "very long". It said empty homes were not maintained to a consistent standard.

But the inspectors did find some strengths, including the service's easy accessibility, a tenants' suggestion box and the number of gas safety checks.

Nick Atkin, lead housing inspector for the northern region, said: "Easington council has responded extremely positively to our inspection and has developed an improvement plan which addresses all the weaknesses highlighted and puts tenants at the heart of delivering service improvements.

"However, staff and councillors now need to develop a broader understanding of housing need and significantly develop tenant involvement."

Among the inspectors' suggestions are that the council provides a single, 24-hour freephone number for repairs, and that staff receive customer care training, wear ID badges and leave customer satisfaction cards.

The council admitted to the inspectors that of its 11,805 homes, two-thirds were below standard. Councillor Colin Reynolds, cabinet member for housing, said it was working hard to address this.

He said:"We will be working closely with the Audit Commission to ensure we improve significantly the level of service offered to council tenants."

* The report follows consecutive poor ratings for Chester-le-Street District Council's housing department, leading to the Government threatening to take it over