Inspectors said the improvements were offset by its weaknesses

A team of housing inspectors gave the service no stars out of a possible three, and described the council as lacking in 'customer focus'.

Although improvements had been made, these had yet to reach residents, an Audit Commission spokesman said.

The council maintains the report showed they were delivering improvements.

Customer feedback

Councillor Steven Bayes said many of these had already been put in place.

"There will be challenging issues to address, most importantly on procurement, as we make the necessary improvements," he added.

"Those difficult issues will have to be faced if we are to maintain the momentum in improvement."

But Nick Atkin, the Audit Commission's head of housing in the northern region, said there was still major work to be done and and noted that the council had a poor track record in delivering the service.

He criticised the procurement process in particular for failing to demonstrate value for money.

Hull City Council has more than 30,000 houses and spent more than �18.5m on repairs last year.