Last year the association announced spending 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, which works 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,” Gavin said.

“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.”

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 retrofitting 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.”