Library services were found to have improved

Two thirds of the 150 single tier and unitary authorities in England are now rated good or excellent, the commission said - up from half two years ago.

And only 48 councils are now rated weak or fair - down 10 from the 2002 figure.

Ten local councils were ranked poor in 2002 - only Kingston-upon-Hull, the council area of Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, is now in that category.

Better management and a focus on improving social services and education were the key to the successes, the commission said.

COUNCIL PERFORMANCE 2004 Audit Commission report (297KB) Most computers will open PDF documents automatically, but you may need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader. Download the reader here

Audit Commission chairman James Strachan said it was "excellent news" communities were now better served, adding: "Many of the councils that have improved should be congratulated."

The commission brought together existing information on councils' performance, and assessed each authority's ability to improve.

It found 52 councils had gone up at least one ranking since December 2003 - twice as many as went up one place last year.

Five councils moved up at least one category for the second year in a row. These were Bury, Islington, Southwark, Torbay and Wakefield. Another five moved up two rankings.

The London Borough of Bromley was singled out as improvement in social services, which had held it back, allowed it to jump two rankings from weak to good.

'Continuous improvement'

South Tyneside jumped from fair to excellent after boosting its performance in housing and social care for adults.

Two councils, the London Borough of Ealing and the Isles of Scilly, moved down one category from fair to weak.

But most improvement was seen among councils previously categorised as poor or weak, reflecting the commission's focus on councils which need to improve.

COUNCIL UPS AND DOWNS Biggest improvers Bromley (weak to good) Coventry (poor to fair) Islington (weak to good) N Tyneside (poor to fair) S Tyneside (fair to excellent) ... And the decliners Ealing (fair to weak) Isles of Scilly (fair to weak) Central England tables London tables Northern England tables Southern England tables

Local government minister Nick Raynsford said he was "delighted" with the results, but warned there needed to be "continuous improvement".

"Local people expect their councils to provide better services. But quite rightly they don't expect these improvements to be accompanied by higher council tax rises".

Local government is expected to deliver �6.45bn efficiency gains, releasing resources for frontline services, by 2007-8.

Tory local government spokesman Caroline Spelman said: "It must be acutely embarrassing for John Prescott - the minister for local government - that his own Labour-run council has been ranked as the worst in England".

More effort on improving frontline services and cutting government inspection costs was needed, she said.

Liberal Democrat local government spokesman Ed Davey said the results were testament to his party's strong council record.

"The most improved council, Islington, as well as three of the five councils singled out for praise by the Audit Commission, are Lib Dem run."

Environmental services were also found to have improved

Overall the commission found that education services had improved significantly with 55 councils now in the top ranking and only one in the lowest.

Despite improvements to children's social care, five councils are still judged to be "not serving children well".

But social care for adults is judged to have improved with no councils found to be "not serving adults well".

Housing has continued to improve with more than half of local authorities achieving the top two scores. Library, leisure and environmental services are all also improving.

But benefit services have got worse in some areas - with a number of authorities in the top category going down.

The Audit Commission said it would respond to improvement by reducing the level and frequency of future inspections and concentrating on councils classed weak or poor.