During his career in housing, spanning 24 years, Mr Foreman has worked in several leadership roles before taking up the new role at DGHP just months after it first joined Wheatley Group.

Mr Foreman first worked with Gateshead Council in a number of housing-related roles over a period of ten years, before moving on to work for its ALMO, the Gateshead Housing Company.

He then moved to South Tyneside Council where he held several senior leadership roles, and he was involved in the setting up of its ALMO, South Tyneside Homes. Mr Foreman then moved on to North Tyneside Homes, North Star Housing Group, Durham Housing Group and, more recently worked as customer service director with Your Homes Newcastle.

He has also spent some time on the board at Derwentside Homes and has been a member of the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) for almost 20 years.

Mr Foreman said: “I am delighted to be joining DGHP at such an exciting time following its partnership with the Wheatley Group. I am very passionate about working with such an ambitious organisation and delivering on our commitments to improve services and invest in housing and communities in the region.

“For me the main focus over the next 12 months will be on providing excellent services for our customers, building relationships with stakeholders, delivering our multi-million investment programme in homes across our region and developing our employability and support services for our customers.

“In addition, work has already started to progress plans for the first of 1000 new-build homes across Dumfries and Galloway over the next five years.”

Bill Robertson, chairman of DGHP, added: “We are absolutely delighted to welcome Matt as our managing director and I know he is committed to delivering commitments made and to focusing on delivering service excellence to our customers.”