Kingdom was registered as a housing association in 1979, in response to the closure of the lodging house hostel in Lochgelly, Fife, which was closed and later demolished. The lodging house provided accommodation for up to 44 homeless men and a group of interested people, formed Kingdom to help meet the housing and support needs of people in the future.

Since then it has grown to provide around 5,000 new affordable homes to meet a full range of housing needs. The Association also has two subsidiary organisations: Kingdom Support and Care is a community interest company that provides a range of care and support services to over 250 individuals. While, Kingdom Initiatives is the trading subsidiary of the association and provides and manages a portfolio of over 500 mid-market rented homes, as well as providing other housing projects and services that Kingdom Housing Association can’t provide as a charitable organisation.

Kingdom is based in Fife, where most of its stock is located, however, the Association also operates and provides housing and support and care services in Perth & Kinross, Falkirk and Clackmannanshire.

The programme for the tour day included visits to Kingdom’s new build sites in Fife and Perth, viewing of void properties to see the re-let standards and visits to recently completed projects to see the standard of the new homes and speak with new tenants.

Freya Lees, chair with Kingdom Housing Association, thanked all the guests who had participated in the tour and said: “As board members, we spend a lot of time in meetings considering reports covering financial, performance, compliance, business planning and other strategic issues and project visits like this are an interesting addition to the Board room business. At Kingdom our mission is to provide more than a home and the annual tour gives us the opportunity to see the new homes and hear more about the range of services and projects we provide, which make a difference to people lives.”

Freya added: “Another benefit of the day is the opportunity for board members to meet the staff and other partners we work with. All the board members find this element of the day really useful and gives us the opportunity to get to know the people and hear about the work they do, which helps us deliver on our objectives.”

Bill Banks, group chief executive with Kingdom, also felt the project tour had been a great success.

He said: “Visiting our projects and meeting the various people who attended on the day, is an opportunity to see the fantastic quality of homes we provide and discuss the wider impact that the work Kingdom does can make. During the day we saw a wide range of house types and saw the high-quality renewable and sustainability features being incorporated into the specifications.

“We also heard about the added value initiatives we incorporate into our investment programme, related to training and employment initiatives, that provide an ideal opportunity for young people to enter the construction sector.”

Speaking about Kingdom’s 40th anniversary, Bill added: “Kingdom has evolved significantly over the last 40 years, we continue to meet the growing needs for affordable housing and in keeping with our mission, we provide a variety of enhanced services to tenants and deliver community initiative projects, including Care & Repair, Small Repairs Service and Kingdom Works, the Association’s employability service.”