In 1993 a group of staff from the Dalkeith area office of Scottish Homes teamed up with tenants and local business people to investigate the creation of a new housing association for Midlothian. Realising there were currently no Midlothian-based housing associations they decided to form their own and the result was Melville Housing which was registered as a company on 9 February 1994.

Following lengthy negotiations with Scottish Homes, and a successful ballot of tenants, the transfer of 2,023 properties and 24 staff took place on Monday 30 October 1995.

Pictured left is Melville's first logo.

In the early years Melville's progress was steady, building its services, staff and management committee. Vital repairs were carried out to homes, while stock numbers gradually declined through right-to-buy losses. At the end of March 1997 Melville owned 1,957 properties and by the end of March 2000, this figure had fallen to 1,773.

Our next significant milestone was achieved in January 2002 when we became a charitable organisation. This ensured that Melville would be in the best position to maximise investment in tenants' homes.

At the end of March 2002 Melville expanded its operations, moving beyond Midlothian for the first time. We took ownership of 52 properties in Forth, South Lanarkshire following a tenant ballot that saw 87% of tenants vote for Melville.

In the same year Melville joined the digital age with the launch of our first ever website. Better late than never! 

2002/2003 was dominated by the introduction of the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 which saw major changes to the Scottish housing legal system. Like many landlords we found that the introduction of the new Act resulted in a significant increase in house sales with 59 properties sold in the year.

2003/2004 was an extremely significant year for Melville as we started to build new homes for the first time. We completed a 14 flat development (pictured left) at Eskview Road, Mayfield, with the help of Communities Scotland and Castle Rock Housing Association.

2006 saw the appointment of our current chief executive, Andrew Noble, promoted from his previous role of Finance Director. During the year we also completed a new Women's Refuge in Midlothian on behalf of Women's Aid and two specially adapted family properties for families with disabled children.

For the first time since our formation we were able to report an increase in stock numbers during 2006/07 thanks to the continued success of our development programme. At the same time, in a sign of the times, our housing waiting list increased to over 1200.

In 2007/08 our current chairman, Brian Christie, was elected to the position. The year saw record investment in new build projects and the introduction of two new services, Tenancy Support and Money Advice, thanks to funding from the Big Lottery.

2008/09 saw the completion of our largest project to date, 32 homes in Gorebridge (pictured right) including our first ever shared-equity properties, sold through the Government's Homestake programme.

Since 2009 we have continued to grow steadily, building new homes thanks to funding from the Scottish Government combined with private finance, buying existing properties both from the Ministry of Defence and from developers struggling to sell in difficult conditions, and stepping in to help owners in danger of losing their homes. As a result of these measures in 2011 our stock numbers passed 1800. At the same time our waiting list remained at a record high of over 2300.

In recent years we have also invested a great deal in improving the homes of our current tenants in order to meet the Scottish Housing Quality Standard ahead of the 2015 deadline. This has included a major window replacement programme that has benefited almost two out of every three Melville homes.

While improving our existing homes remains our top priority we are looking at every opportunity to build more homes and have recently begun work on our largest ever development. The project (pictured left) at Langlaw Road, Mayfield, will see 133 family homes built on the edge of Dalkeith with work expected to finish in 2012.