A BRADFORD housing association is celebrating after scooping a major prize at a national awards evening.

Horton Housing was named Outstanding Landlord of the Year at the 2016 UK Housing Awards at a ceremony held in London.

The awards were held at the Lancaster Hotel in the captial, and were organised by the Chartford Institute of Housing and the Inside Housing magazine.

The awards recognise achievement in social housing and highlight ingenuity, creativity and passion among the housing sector.

Paul Gartland, chief executive of Horton Housing, said he was stunned when the association was named the winner.

He said: "We are absolutely delighted to win, we were up against some large and respected organisations so to come out on top we are really proud.

"We have been recognised as a small but dynamic landlord, performing well against some very well established and large organisations.

"The whole evening was really good fun; Rory Bremner hosted the event and was really funny, and he helped to present the award along with the sponsors and gave us his congratulations.

"I think he read us a quote from one of the members of the judging panel, Lord Richard Best, but we were all so stunned to win I can't remember exactly what he said.

"I would like to thank all the staff at Horton Housing; this award really is recognition of all the hard work they do making an impact on the lives of the people we accommodate.

"Being on the shortlist we knew that we were in with a chance of winning, but you just never know with these kind of things and there were some really well-respected organisations with us, so we were just hoping for the best and we won."

Horton Housing beat off competition from all over the country to pick up the outstanding landlord award.

The other organisations on the shortlist were; Housing & Care 21, Nottingham City Homes, Places for People, RHP Group, and the A2Dominion Group.

The association was praised for its innovative services which have been developed to address particular social needs.

"Our 'home from hospital' scheme, BRICSS, has been widely recognised as an innovative solution to reducing bed-blocking in hospitals, and we were the first organisation in the UK to sign up to the Government's Vulnerable Person's Relocation Scheme, helping to resettle Syrian refugees in the UK," said Mr Gartland.

Horton Housing provides support and accommodation for some of Bradford's most vulnerable people, including the homeless, elderly people, and recovering addicts.

Emma Maier, editor of Inside Housing magazine, who organised the awards, tweeted her congratulations to Horton Housing, calling it "humbling and impressive".

She tweeted: "And the award for landlord of the year goes to small but mighty Horton Housing, which is doing some amazing and very tough work."