A £100 million clean up is set to take place aimed at improving the environment of 200 thousand Scottish housing association tenants and creating over 200 new jobs.

Wheatley Group, which includes Scotland’s largest social landlord Glasgow Housing Association, will spend the cash over the next five years to maintain and improve communities across the country.

The new project will coincide with a huge overhaul of the group’s environmental teams - offering 91 full time positions, 45 environmental apprenticeships and 45 environmental trainee opportunites.

Wheatley Group Director of Housing Olga Clayton said: “This is a massive statement of intent in our mission to make homes and lives better for our 200,000 customers across central Scotland.”

Almost half of the opportunities are ring-fenced for customers of Wheatley’s subsidiaries and their families, some of whom live in the most disadvantaged communities in Scotland.

The traineeships and apprenticeships, are available under Wheatley’s new Changing Lives programme, and will be open to unemployed and homeless young people living in Wheatley communities.

The new locally-based Neighbourhood Environmental Teams will clean 4000 closes and 127 multi-storey blocks every week, as well as maintaining back courts and cutting grass and trees.

The group, which spans 17 local authority areas across Central Scotland, includes Glasgow Housing Association which has almost 40,000 homes in Glasgow, Cube Housing with more than 3,400 social homes in the West of Scotland and Loretto Housing which has 1200 homes in Central Scotland.

Olga Clayton said: “In Glasgow alone over the past 13 years, we have invested £1.5 BILLION in improving and modernising over 80,000 affordable homes.

“We will continue to invest in our properties, as well as build thousands of new homes. But we also want to do all we can – working with local authorities and Scottish Government – to ensure our customers also have local communities they are proud to live in.

“That’s why, going forward, we will invest over £20 million a year across the Group on providing and strengthening these essential environmental services.”

Mrs Clayton added: “We know from customer research our NETs and the great work they do are already hugely popular with the people we work for. We are confident the changes and improvements we are now making will take our already very high customer satisfaction levels even higher.”