In approving the association’s Annual Accounts for the year, shareholding members at the recent Annual General Meeting noted a surplus for the year of just over £2.4 million.

It was also reported that this was almost twice as much as had been expected due to redress of £1.3m received from the Clydesdale Bank as a result of the association successfully challenging the bank for the mis-selling of a loan product around 10 years ago.

Mrs Welsh welcomed the windfall which she said would give the association greater financial security but warned that this would be much needed to face “what look like five more years of austerity ahead,” both in terms of limits on new housing investment and the negative impact on tenants’ incomes of “even more, as yet unidentified, cuts in the welfare budget”.

On a more positive note, the association members noted that there had been a return to growth through the development of new homes during 2014/15 at Monarch’s Rise and Great Michael Road in Arbroath and at North Brown Street, Carnoustie.

Mrs Welsh told the AGM she was particularly pleased to see the new 32 house development at Ormiston Crescent in Dundee’s Whitfield estate get underway – more than 25 years after the first phase of regeneration of the area was started by Ormiston People’s Housing Co-operative.

Members also heard that record levels of investment were being made in the association’s housing stock of around 1,800 homes when she explained: “In total, we invested more than £2.5m in our existing housing stock in 2014/15. I believe that it speaks volumes for how far advanced we are in investing in the assets that are our housing stock, when we are now comprehensively modernising houses that are only around 20 years old.

“More significantly, we are able to commit this level of investment going forward from our rental income streams without the need for subsidy or additional borrowing.”

@AngusHA