Housing bodies the Chartered Institute of Housing in Scotland and HouseMark Scotland have formally relocated from central Edinburgh premises on Princes Street to newly refurbished offices at 160 Dundee Street in the Fountainbridge area of the west end of the city.

They have been joined in their new offices by Procurement for Housing (PfH) Scotland, a subsidiary of HouseMark.

CIH Scotland took the opportunity of an informal office opening ceremony attended by a cross section of housing sector stakeholders on Friday to announce that an inaugural Scottish Housing Day will take place on Monday September 19.

The purpose of Scottish Housing Day will be to raise public awareness of the importance of housing policy issues and to give the public easier access to the resources they need to make properly informed housing decisions. Partner organisations are organising a busy programme of events to mark Scottish Housing Day and the general public will be encouraged to get involved through participation in events and interaction with social media and a dedicated website.

The relocation to new offices will allow CIH Scotland to free up additional resources to be focused on providing enhanced services for the benefit of its membership of around 2,300 individual housing professionals across the country. This includes greater scope to organise training sessions and other events which are free for CIH members to attend.

The Chartered Institute of Housing has taken out a ten year lease on the new office space, reaffirming its long term commitment to play an active role in Scotland’s changing housing landscape – and to continue to make a constructive contribution to critical debates on the future of housing policy in Scotland.

Speaking at the opening event, CIH chair Amanda Britain said: “This is a time of quite rapid change in terms both of Scottish housing policy and the wider political landscape. Throughout this period, CIH Scotland will retain a commitment to championing quality, to driving up standards within the housing profession and to delivering real benefits on behalf of its growing membership. Relocating our offices will enable us to do more and to do it better with the resources we have and I think our members will see a real and immediate benefit from that.”

Concerning the launch of Scottish Housing Day, CIH Scotland director Annie Mauger added: “This is the very first year that a Scottish Housing Day has been organised. In this and subsequent years, our aim will be to raise general awareness of housing amongst the general public and to signpost them towards the resources and information they need to make properly informed decisions about their housing options.”

Commenting on the office move, head of HouseMark Scotland Kirsty Wells said: “Being co-located with CIH Scotland has always been really beneficial for HouseMark Scotland, particularly since the Chartered Institute of Housing is one of HouseMark’s shareholding parent companies alongside the National Housing Federation. The new offices provide a really convenient base to continue to meet the needs of a growing list of HouseMark Scotland members throughout the country.”

Stephen Herriot, head of operations at PfH Scotland, said: “Having a base in Edinburgh will be a great help to our ongoing work across Scotland to help social landlords get the best possible value for money from the procurement of goods and services.”