BURNLEY'S biggest landlord, Burnley and Padiham Housing is celebrating its first birthday -- with a promise of further service improvements to tenants.

The company, which took over all Burnley's 5,200 council houses last year, has already spent more than £7million on repairs and improvements since taking control.

Now company chief executive Ian Saville has promised an even busier year ahead with a number of new initiatives.

He said the company would continue its improvement programme -- which would see £30 million spent in Burnley over the first five year period -- and also planned to establish a call centre, set up a town centre property shop and change its house allocations policy among many other projects.

The company, which employs 200 staff, says it has developed an extensive Tenant and Community Involvement Policy with significant support from tenant groups.

It also aims to set up a Consumer Panel of 500 tenants to act as a sounding board on key issues.

Looking back on he year, chairman of he board Wynn McGeorge said: "It has been an incredibly busy year.

"To build any organisation from new is a challenge, but one that has to be fully operational from day one and has 200 employees with a turnover of £11million has to be an achievement.

The company says the first year saw 451 central heating systems installed, 626 properties double 7-0 new kitchens fitted, 15 properties re-roofed and nearly 1,000 externally painted.