The Regulator initially made a statutory appointment of a manager and three appointees to the governing body in February 2016 after it identified serious weaknesses in the Association’s governance and financial management and failures to comply with Regulatory Standards.

An independent investigation commissioned by Ferguslie Park at the time highlighted a number of serious concerns including inappropriate payments being made without the proper delegated authority. A Section 72 notice was also sent to the Regulator from external auditors notifying it of inappropriate payments.

The appointments supported Ferguslie Park to make the improvements to its governance and financial management.

It ended the appointment of the statutory manager in January 2018 and ended the appointments of the two remaining governing body appointees on September 28.

In a revised regulation plan published this week, the Regulator stated that Ferguslie Park has made significant progress in dealing with the issues that led to the initial intervention but still has” a small number of outstanding tasks remaining in its improvement programme to ensure it is full complying with our Regulatory Standards”.

The regulation plan added: “It must also continue to sustain the significant improvements achieved particularly in relation to governing body skills, development and effectiveness. We also need to engage with Ferguslie Park as it finalises its staff structure and recruits a senior management team. We may review our engagement activity depending on these outcomes.”

Michael Cameron, the Regulator’s chief executive, said: “Ferguslie Park has made significant improvements over the last two years and is now in a much stronger position. It has appointed a new senior officer and has clear plans in place to continue to improve. We will continue to engage with Ferguslie Park as it works to deliver further improvements.”

Ferguslie Park chairperson Shona McIntyre told Scottish Housing News: “The Board are delighted that the SHR has ended its statutory intervention with the association. We are now in a strong place to move forward in delivering top quality services for our tenants and for the wider community of Ferguslie Park.

“We are grateful to the appointees who have been of great assistance to the Board in reviewing and robustly rebuilding their governance and financial management support systems.

“Following the recent appointment of our new group chief executive, who will shortly be joined by a new senior management team, we are also very pleased to welcome new members of the Ferguslie Park community to the Board.

“We can now look forward with confidence to playing a key part in delivering a brighter future for, not just our tenants, but for all the people of Ferguslie Park.”