A Carlisle estate agent is celebrating after scooping a gold industry award for the second year running.

Northwood Properties of Carlisle has just won the British Property Awards 2016 for its sales and lettings service judged by mystery shoppers.

Last year it won the All Agents best agent in Cumbria award for customer service, based on customer feedback.

It now goes forward to the British Property Awards national finals in September, to be presented by Martin Roberts of BBC property programme Homes Under the Hammer.

Northwood director Gordon Adamson said: "The British Property Awards are different, they are based on mystery shopping.

"Entering the awards gave us the opportunity to be appraised on our day-to-day working practices and customer engagement.

"In our office we have a strong focus on customer service which underpins everything we do. We are confident our processes and procedures are in place to allow us to deliver service and achieve successful business results and growth.

"Entering these awards gave us an opportunity to put all of these to the test through the mystery shopping. Winning the award is a huge achievement.

"I am extremely proud of my team and they are elated as well. We are all very excited about our trip to the national awards later in the year. Fingers crossed for further success."

Robert McLean from the British Property Awards said: "Our awards have been specifically designed to be attainable to all agents, removing common barriers to entry, such as cost, to ensure that we have the most inclusive awards.

"If an agent has been attributed with one of our awards, it is simply down to the fantastic customer service levels that they have demonstrated across a prolonged period of time.”

Northwood Properties has been operating for nine years and employs nine people at its city centre offices.