East Kilbride and District Housing Association is to change its name and modernise its logo and has enlisted the help of its tenants to do so.

The Association wants to be known as East Kilbride Housing Association (ekha) and has four newly designed logos for people to pick their favourite.

Twitter followers, tenants, members and visitors to the Association’s office will be asked to vote over the next month, with the winning logo to be announced after its AGM on September 7.

Participants will be entered into a draw to win £50 East Kilbride Centre vouchers.

Director Andy Young said: “There are various reasons why we decided to do a rebrand. It soon became very clear to me when I arrived in East Kilbride that - somewhat surprisingly - the Association was not well known in the town. Those that had heard of us thought that we were in some way connected to the local authority, or indeed were the local authority.

“In addition to this, East Kilbride and District Housing Association is quite a mouthful, and what the ‘and District’ bit of the name relates to has never been entirely clear to anybody. ‘ek’ is a well known brand in itself and most folk would recognize it as an abbreviation for East Kilbride. I would argue very strongly that, if this organisation was being created today, EK Housing Association would be a very strong candidate for an initial company name (with apologies for the poor punnery).”

Andy added: “Of course, we need to do more than simply rebrand. Our vision is to be the ‘go to’ social landlord in the town, and we are also becoming involved in new projects and services. A modern look and feel will help us to move forward in this respect. Our Board certainly thinks that a new name would make us seem more meaningful in 21st Century East Kilbride.

“We set up a working group of both staff and Board members to look at this modernisation process, which is also about modernising the culture as well as the badge, and I am very pleased that everybody has contributed enthusiastically to discussions and taken ownership of the project.”

The Association will also be texting tenants and canvassing customers between now and the AGM before the decision is made on the winning logo.

Andy said: “I will do a short presentation to our members that evening, outlining why we have decided to rebrand, what our immediate plans are, etc and I will invite them to view some samples of each logo and cast their vote. Our Board will meet briefly after the formal part of the AGM to elect office bearers for 2016/7 and will endorse the choice for new logo and either myself or the Chair will make the announcement to the audience, once they have finished playing bingo!”