Kingdom Housing Association has marked a successful year by agreeing to the introduction of the living wage, of £7.65 an hour, for this year, across all of its operations.

Board members, tenants and staff at the Association’s Annual General Meeting heard chairperson Charles Milne report that the Glenrothes-based housing provider had performed well in a challenging year to complete 130 new homes with work begun on a further 179 houses.

Mr Milne (pictured) noted that Kingdom had invested £15 million in new housing for developments in Cellardyke, Cupar, Dunfermline, Glenrothes, Kirkcaldy, Lochgelly, Kincardine, Largoward and Methil. The association had also received over £7m in subsidy from the Scottish Government and Fife Council.

He added that 91 per cent of new tenants had said they were very satisfied with the quality of their new home and that 93 per cent of tenants had expressed satisfaction with Kingdom’s repairs service.

Mr Milne said: “We have made progress in challenging circumstances and in particular we have continued to progress improvements to existing homes and as at March 2014 over 90 per cent of our stock met or exceeded the Scottish Housing Quality Standard.

“It has been a difficult year for our Support & Care services, due to the funding constraints, however we have maintained very good (Grade 5) assessment scores as part of the Care Inspectorates report. Over 90 per cent of our Support & Care staff are now qualified or working towards the necessary qualifications.”

He added: “In the circumstances we felt that it was appropriate that Kingdom, as one of the region’s biggest employers with 350 staff, should adopt the principle of the living wage in recognition of the efforts made by all our staff in successfully attaining our goals.”