A single-office agent in north London, Paramount, has won the title of Lettings Agency of the Year in the Sunday Times and Times awards.

The judges praised the firm for the way it develops and rewards its staff, and how it looks after its clients.

Tenants can have deliveries sent to the Paramount office if they are at work, and the Paramount team then takes them to the property at a convenient time.

The firm also offered six months of free property management to all let-only landlords. Of those who took up the offer, all have migrated to the full management service.

Paramount beat off the likes of Countrywide and Reeds Rains, who took gold and silver respectively in the large lettings agency category.

Marsh & Parsons triumphed as the UK’s best medium-size lettings agency of the year, and Lenwell, with branches in Luton, Bedford and Dunstable, won UK small lettings agency of the year.

John Paul, of Castledene, was honoured for his outstanding contribution to lettings. The judges praised him as an “exceptional individual who has probably done more for social housing tenants than anyone else in the industry”.

They said that “John and his team treat everyone who comes into contact with Castledene with respect, integrity and honesty, irrespective of social or economic background”.

The title of best lettings agency to work for was picked up by skybluehomes.co.uk, and there were customer service awards for Streets Ahead, Daniel Cobb, Karl Tatler, My London Home and Maxine Lester.

Belvoir was named best franchise firm, beating off rival Martin & Co.

Supplier of the year was named as software firm Reapit, with Fixflo picking up gold.

The awards also delivered a fillip to Foxtons, which must have felt welcome after a spell of negative publicity. The firm, which is facing the possibility of a class legal action from landlords, picked up gold as the best property manager of over 1,001 properties.

The full list is here with congratulations to all the winners – and also to Peter Knight and his team for organising Friday’s outstanding event, co-hosted by the impressive Penny Smith and Paula Radcliffe.