Bradford was today rated as one of Britain's better performing councils in the first national league tables of local authorities.

The authority's strong leadership was singled out for high praise and full marks were given for its housing and benefit services. Figures in detail

The league tables mean for the first time, the public can see how well Bradford Council provides its services and the strengths and weaknesses of its employees.

Each of the 150 metropolitan, county and London councils in England was inspected by the Audit Commission, the national spending watchdog, and rated as either excellent, good, fair, weak or poor.

And although Yorkshire and Humberside had the highest proportion of the "poor" councils of any region, Bradford was assessed as being among those that are "good."

Among the five West Yorkshire authorities, it was on a level with Leeds and beaten by only Kirklees - which was in the "excellent" category and was one of the top 15 per cent nationally.

Kirklees was praised for its strong services, good community leadership and was said to be in touch with its population. Calderdale was rated as "fair" and Wakefield was classed as "poor".

North Yorkshire County Council, which is in charge of major services in the Skipton area, was graded as "fair".

Bradford Council's chief executive Ian Stewart and its Tory leader Councillor Margaret Eaton were described as "great assets" to Britain's fourth biggest metropolitan authority in today's report.

"Their personal energy, drive and commitment is outstanding," it said.

All the political groups were praised for strong leadership but the inspectors said a significant amount of work was carried out by a small number of councillors in the hung authority and they found that the Council had missed the opportunity to spread the workload over more members.

The Audit Commission inspectors also found a mixed standard of services for the people of the district with performance in education improving but still considerably beneath national standards.

The report concluded that the major changes which saw management of schools being passed to Education Bradford was too recent to have had its full impact.

The report pointed out that the £1.218 million investment in Bradford's European Capital of Culture bid showed the Council's ambition and policy of investing in the future.

But it warned that without big investment in the Council's outdated information technology systems over the next two years it will fail to reach its goals.

Mr Stewart said today the Council hoped to get an outside partner with a view to significant improvements in the computer systems.

The report also said: "Bradford has learned from the disturbances last year and now works much more closely with the police to monitor the 'health' of local areas. Recent handling of community concerns following the sentencing of rioters showed sensitive community leadership.

But the inspectors recognised the "significant challenges" facing a Council with no overall political control as it was being modernised.

An action plan recommended to the Council by the Audit Commission includes ensuring councillors get training after the inspection team concluded there was a poor take-up by members.

The Council was also urged to concentrate on "action and activities" rather than planning and consultation.

Bradford was given full marks for its housing and benefit services but its education, social care and libraries only got two out of possible four marks.

But it got three out of four for its environmental services including cleansing and its overall use of resources.

The Council's overall assessment was three out of four and boosted the overall lacklustre performance of Yorkshire and Humber authorities where 20 per cent of councils were rated "poor" compared with a national average of 8.6 per cent.

But the message from Mr Stewart was that the Bradford Council was not complacent and would concentrate on improving its weaknesses.

"We need to become much more focused on delivery and I shall be working closely with members, staff and partners to ensure that service delivery is improved. We accept the report, warts and all," he added.

Coun Eaton said there was a genuine commitment across the Council to make Bradford a place which people could be proud of, and action would be implemented following the report.

She added: "We are delighted with the assessment and hope it will dispel negative images of Bradford and show there are many very good things being done here."

But leader of the Labour group Councillor Ian Greenwood said he did not believe the public would agree with the assessment on how their services were being delivered.

He said elderly people in homes which were threatened with closure, families let down by welfare transport services, tenants waiting for repairs and parents threatened by school closures which never happened were among those who should be asked what they thought of services.

But Councillor Jeanette Sunderland, leader of the Liberal Democrat group said: "I am delighted. It represents two years of very hard work by both councillors and officers."

In a joint statement Calderdale Council leader John Ford (Con), Liberal Democrat group leader Councillor Michael Taylor, and Labour group leader Councillor Bob Metcalfe said: "Our record of continuous improvement and the fact that we missed out so narrowly on a 'good' report bodes well for the future.

Kirklees Council leader Coun Kath Pinnock said its task was not only to stay in the premier league of local authorities but to keep on improving.

Audit Commission figures in detail