Evelyn Barnes will be cooking in style this Christmas after landlord Rushcliffe Homes fitted her new kitchen this week. The kitchen marks the end of a £15 million modernisation scheme promised by Rushcliffe Homes when it took over Rushcliffe Borough Council’s housing stock in 2003.

Evelyn – who has lived in the house since she was two – is delighted with her new kitchen. “It is lovely,” she says. “And it seems much bigger now. Before there was a big wooden structure across the middle but that has been taken out. Everything has been replaced.”

She also had a new bathroom fitted as part of the association’s menu modernisation scheme. The programme saw each eligible household given a number of points and a list of possible home improvements, each with a point value. They could pick and choose what work they wanted up to the value of their points.

To mark the end of the work, Evelyn was presented with a festive hamper. With her new kitchen ready, she can’t wait to get cooking for her family next week. “Now I am really looking forward to cooking Christmas dinner.”