Long-serving staff applauded

Three of Kingdom Housing Association’s employees have received long service awards after clocking up 80 years of service.

Area housing manager Alex McLaren and senior development services officer Carmen Hunter were congratulated for 25 years’ service.

Kingdom chief executive Bill Banks was presented with a certificate marking his 30 years with the affordable housing provider.

He was the fourth employee to join Kingdom, in 1987. It now employs 371 people.

Spending most of his time developing new homes, he said: “When I started with Kingdom we only had 16 flats in management and we all did a bit of everything.

“My main jobs at the start were rent collecting, helping with admin tasks and assisting with the management of the houses and the development programme.

“Very soon after I started, we doubled our stock to more than 30 houses in management and another project on site.

“We were really, really busy – I was asked whether I wanted to focus on housing management or development. I opted for development and never regretted it.

“Over the years we have grown significantly and I’m particularly pleased to have been part of the team that has developed more than 5,000 new homes and helped Kingdom develop into such a progressive organisation.”