The housing, care and property-management group built 601 homes for social rent between April 2019, and March this year. It built a total of 802 affordable homes in this period, including 197 mid-market houses and flats, taking the number of new affordable homes completed in the past five years to 3,578.

Wheatley’s ambitious new-build programme has been funded by over £1 billion of private and public investment raised over the past six years.

Alistair MacNish, group chairman, said: “We view the title of ‘the UK’s largest builder of social-rented homes’ as a badge of honour. To retain the title for four years in a row is proof of our total commitment to Scottish Government’s More Homes Scotland agenda. It is testimony also to our ongoing commitment to build fuel-efficient, attractive homes across some of Scotland’s most disadvantaged areas. We are proud our award-winning homes match what the private sector has to offer.”

Work is underway or about to start on 30 Wheatley sites across Scotland, from West Dunbartonshire and Glasgow to West Lothian and Edinburgh and from Dumfries to Stranraer under plans to build 5500 affordable homes between now and 2026.

Martin Armstrong, Wheatley chief executive, added: “Our quality, energy-efficient homes are changing people’s lives and transforming communities within an ambitious house-building programme that is making a significant contribution to the Scottish economy. As everyone knows, there is ongoing acute need for affordable homes and we are doing our bit and more to tackle this.

“The arrival earlier this year of Dumfries and Galloway Housing Partnership - Scotland’s second largest housing association – into the Wheatley family has enabled us to extend our extensive house-building programme across the south of Scotland.

“Now that house building has resumed in Dumfries and Galloway and our sites across the central belt, we are keen to make up for the lost ground caused by the coronavirus crisis.”