.net vs .co.uk domain name (help needed)

Hi folks

Sorry if this has been discussed before but its starting to annoy me,
I have created a website for a friend of mine which is a .net domain
the .co.uk was taken. No matter how hard i try i just cant get the no1
spot on google for my main search term the no1 is taken by his main
competitor who has a .co.uk domain. My site has loads of backlinks and
im sure the site is ok, most of the first 3 pages on google are links to the
.net site from various social network sites etc, but i just cant get the top spot.

Now to my point - as this is a uk search does the .co.uk domain have such
an advantage over a .net that it cant be beat or am i missing something

The search term is -- cbt bradford -- if you want to try from outside the uk

thanks
Icecubes..

Come on guys someone must have some idea
its been posted 3-4 days now and only 5 views

I think Google prefer the .co.uk as I have a couple of websites and the .co.uk's always do so much better on a UK search. The .net does ok on an 'all of the web' search but I would choose a domain with the keyword in the title and then buy a .co.uk...just my opinion!

unfortunatly this is an old established domain
and cant be dropped

i did buy c*****dford.co.uk to try to get to the top
but that is going to take ages as its very competetive
or at least the top 3 slots are - theres a bit of a local battle going on.

i might try a couple of hundred backlinks i think the domain can
stand it, and see if i can get it to move.