A project which turns social housing tenants into interpreters for their landlord has scooped a top prize.

The scheme, run by housing provider Incommunities, trains up tenants who can speak a second language into self-employed translators.

They then use their interpreting skills to help help people from different backgrounds to get a home.

Each of the interpreters has completed specialist training developed jointly by Incommunities, the University of Bradford and the social enterprise, Enable2. So far, 11 bilingual customers have become translators in a range of languages, including Polish, Czech, Slovak, Mandarin, Arabic, Russian, Latvian, Hindi, Punjabi and Urdu.

They were joined by Pam Chahal, of Incommunities’ customer insight and involvement team, who also completed the course to help with her work with different community groups.

As part of the project, interpreters are now working with homeless people and families to make sure important housing information is accessible to them.

The interpreters and Incommunities staff were celebrating when the Fair Access and Inclusion Project won an Excellence in Equality and Diversity Award at the Tenant Participation Advisory Service (TPAS) Northern Awards.

They will now go through to the national finals of the awards contest in July.

Geraldine Howley, Incommunities Group chief executive, said: “This TPAS award is terrific recognition for everyone involved in this ground breaking project.

“By equipping this group of customers with interpreting skills the project is empowering them to be part of an accessible service that is transforming lives.

“At the same time it is also providing real job opportunities for these trained individuals.

“This is a project that again demonstrates how we are ‘improving lives Incommunities’.

“Let’s hope the team involved can go on to achieve more success in the TPAS national final on July 11.”