17 Mar 2025
Manor Estates, which owns more than 1,000 properties in Edinburgh and Fife, has become the first housing provider to be accredited by Dogs Trust for its pet-friendly policies.
Vet Times
Job Title
A Manor Estates property in greater Edinburgh.
An Edinburgh housing association has become the first housing provider in the UK to be accredited by Dogs Trust for its pet-friendly policies and practices.
Manor Estates, which owns more than 1,000 properties across Edinburgh and Fife, has been working closely with Dogs Trust for the past nine months to enhance its pet-friendly offer to tenants and has updated its pet policy.
While tenants of Manor Estates have always had the automatic right to keep one pet within their home, there is now a focus on tenants keeping the association up to date on any changes in pet ownership so that they can provide support and advice on caring for their pet.
Staff have also attended training delivered by the Dogs Trust canine behaviour team, equipping them with skills and knowledge to help them interact safely with dogs while out and about in communities and homes.
The charity now hopes this project will be used as a blueprint for other social landlords and has worked with Manor Estates to create a toolkit that others can use to help them become more pet-friendly, increasing the availability of pet-friendly housing across Scotland and the UK.
The project has been funded by a grant from People’s Postcode Lottery and comes as Dogs Trust is receiving a high number of enquiries from people who are being forced to re-home their dogs.
More than 15% of the people contacting Dogs Trust cited issues with housing as the reason for needing to re-home their dogs – this includes people forced to move or downsize as rental prices increase, but who cannot find suitable, affordable, pet-friendly properties.
Jennifer Leonard from Dogs Trust said: “Every day, we hear from desperate owners who are sadly forced to re-home their much-loved dogs due to the lack of pet-friendly housing.
“’To address this, we have been working with Manor Housing over the past few months to pilot pet-friendly policies, and thanks to the great work the team at Manor Housing has done, we are delighted to be able to give them this accreditation.
“We hope that other social landlords, and those in the private sector, too, can learn from the work Manor Estates has done and remove barriers that prevent tenants from having pets.”
