The highlight of the event was the announcement of the winners of Kingdom’s Good Neighbour Awards, celebrating acts of kindness and support from Kingdom’s tenants across the central belt.

Nikki Hague won the Supportive Young Neighbour Award and said: “When I heard I was nominated I was over the moon, and I believe everyone should do their part to help others. The smallest act of kindness can make a difference to someone’s life.”

Fellow winner Yvonne Gilfillan lifted the Community Spirit Award and added: “It’s important to be connected to a community who supports each other and cares and this starts with one act of kindness. My neighbours and friends have helped me on many occasions and I have helped them and for that I’m thankful.”

Attendees also heard about the record breaking levels of tenant participation during the year, the customer contribution to the CIH award for Excellence in Scrutiny, and were recognised for their input into developing Kingdom’s Domestic Abuse Policy and for helping to rewrite Kingdom’s Tenant & Customer Participation Strategy.

Tony Kelly, development officer for TPAS, Scotland’s national tenant and landlord participation advisory service, presented the Good Neighbour Awards and said: “It was so nice to be asked to take part. So nice to be able to read the nominations. So nice to see the impact that kindness has in a community. But it wasn’t easy to decide who wins. They all showed how relationships are what make a difference in people’s lives.

“And this continues into Kingdom’s great work in building relationships with communities. Tenants are getting more involved in consultation activities, as the increase in responses to this year’s rent setting shows, because, I think, of this growing relationship.”

Kingdom Group chief executive Bill Banks sat on the Good Neighbour Awards judging panel and said: “This has been another tough year for everyone and we’ve all faced unexpected challenges. But there have also been lots of heart-warming stories about how people are coming together and helping others in their communities. We wanted to celebrate these moments of kindness that often go unrecognised and the people who go above and beyond for their neighbours and their communities.

“We were really impressed by the volume of nominations and our independent panel of judges had a difficult time choosing winners and runners up in each of our categories. Every nominee could have been a worthy winner and I want to congratulate everyone who received a nomination.”