Celebrating 25 Years!

Posted on October 22, 2014

As a Registered Social Landlord, we are proud to have been providing quality homes for our tenants in the Borders for the past 25 years. Today we provide homes for tenants in more than 1,500 properties across a number of local towns and villages, the majority of these being in Galashiels, Hawick, Jedburgh, Kelso and Selkirk. Of course a lot has changed since 1989 when we were originally set-up but our core purpose remains the same today as it did then.  To provide quality and affordable housing whilst contributing to the generation of sustainable local communities at the same time.  By engaging with our tenants and through partnership working, we have been successful in creating neighbourhoods where people want to live today and in the future.  A large part of this success is down to the fact that we are a tenant led organisation where tenants can have a controlling interest on our Board of Directors. Waverley Housing was originally made up of two companies, Waverley Housing Trust and Waverley Housing Management, entirely funded from private finance and tenants’ rental income.  At that time, the Waverley model was seen as a radical innovation in the housing sector in Scotland and as a result of the track record we achieved, Waverley became the first landlord in Scotland to receive a large scale voluntary transfer when more than 1,100 houses were transferred from Scottish Homes with a further 800 houses acquired from Tenants Choice Transfer thereafter.  In 2001, both companies merged to form Waverley Housing and we have gone on to become an active member of the Borders Housing Network. In 2014 we are certainly not resting on our laurels.  We will of course continue to invest in the housing that we provide but as we look to the future we will also work hard to develop and support more and more community based initiatives that make a difference to people’s lives.  Wonderful developments such as community garden projects, supporting the creation of children’s play parks and community hubs to providing tenants with free computer access at our Hawick offices. Of course there’s a dedicated team who work hard to deliver this service on a daily basis – our Housing Team, Property Team, Trades Team of joiners, builders, painters, plumbers and electricians and our Finance and IT Team. This is a team effort from local people who genuinely care about providing quality homes for our tenants and the communities that they live in for the next 25 years and beyond.  It is a privilege to provide homes for our tenants and we would like to thank them for their loyal support and input over the years. With an ongoing programme of investment in our properties along with exciting new community initiatives that are taking place, we will continue to work hard to create neighbourhoods where people want to live today and in the future.