Ayrshire Housing has appointed a new Property Director who will be responsible for overseeing the significant levels of investment planned for its stock over the next few years.
Last year the association announced spend of more than £11 million to improve homes for its tenants, and new appointment Gavin Johnston will play a key role in delivering this.
Gavin joins Ayrshire from Built Environment – Smarter Transformation, who work with organisations across the construction sector to come up with new ways to transform the built environment to become stronger, more sustainable, and smarter.
He comes from an architectural background and has a wealth of experience in the social housing sector.
‘I’m delighted to be joining Ayrshire Housing as Director of Property and particularly excited to be joining an excellent and established team working within such a strong and thriving community.
‘My career has given me experience across housing, asset management, construction and, more recently, innovation at a national level. I’m looking forward to bringing that experience together in this role, while learning from the team and building on the positive work and momentum already established at Ayrshire Housing.
‘My ambition is to help shape a clear long term approach to our homes, investment and development, maintaining what works well while bringing a fresh perspective to the opportunities and challenges ahead. That means making good use of data, strong partnerships and innovative approaches where they can add real value.
‘Ultimately, I want to help ensure we continue to invest wisely, provide high quality, sustainable homes and deliver excellent services for our customers and communities, while making sure Ayrshire Housing is well positioned for the future.’
Ayrshire Housing was established in 2003 through the merger of Carrick Housing Association and South Ayrshire Homes. Since then it has grown rapidly to become one of the area’s leading providers of high quality, affordable rented housing managing 1700 homes in both urban and rural environments.
Chief executive Lesley-Anne Junner welcomed Gavin to the team.
‘Gavin joins us at a time of huge opportunity for Ayrshire Housing to help improve both the availability of affordable housing in the area and to ensure our existing stock is as efficient as possible. His experience of retro-fitting homes in his previous position to make them as carbon neutral as possible will be invaluable as we set out to improve the energy efficiency of all our homes to keep costs to our tenants as low as possible,’ she said.