The Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) is the professional body for those working in the housing profession in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. It has a

royal charter A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, bu ...

, gained in 1984. Currently CIH has over 17,000 members, mostly in the UK but also overseas, notably in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

. CIH's current Chief Executive is Gavin Smart.

History

The CIH traces its organisational roots back to the philanthropic work carried out by pioneers such as

Octavia Hill Octavia Hill (3 December 1838 – 13 August 1912) was an English Reform movement, social reformer, whose main concern was the welfare of the inhabitants of cities, especially London, in the second half of the nineteenth century. Born into a fa ...

, in response to the revelation of the appalling housing conditions endured by much of the population in the 1884-1885 Royal Commission on the Housing of Working Classes. Hill established a method of letting properties on short-term tenancies and trained a group of women to manage the properties by collecting rents and dealing with repairs and tenants' welfare issues.Chartered Institute of Housing History
/ref> The Association of Women Housing Workers, founded in 1916, carried on this pioneering work and housing advocate

Irene Barclay Irene Barclay (1894–1989), née Martin, was the first woman to qualify in England as a chartered surveyor, and was a noted campaigner for social housing. Life Irene Barclay was the daughter of a socialist and pacifist Congregationalist minister ...

was a leading figure in it. The organisation changed its name to the Society of Housing Managers in 1948. The Institute of Housing was founded in 1931 by a group of local government offices in the West Midlands, who also developed a housing qualification and published the first edition of ''Housing'' magazine. The two merged in 1965 to form the Institute of Housing Managers. The organisation was renamed the Institute of Housing in 1974 and gained the appellation "Chartered" when its royal charter was granted in 1984. In 1999, CIH merged with the Institute of Rent Officers.

CIH Today

CIH’s Head Office is in

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its ...

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

, with smaller offices in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Cardiff Cardiff (; cy, Caerdydd ) is the capital and largest city of Wales. It forms a principal area, officially known as the City and County of Cardiff ( cy, Dinas a Sir Caerdydd, links=no), and the city is the eleventh-largest in the United Kingd ...

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

and

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

, and overseas offices in

and

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

. Alongside its services to members it produces training, publications, conferences and seminars to organisations, members and non-members. CIH works with universities to develop housing qualifications, and provides distance learning courses. CIH’s annual conference is held every June, moving to

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

from 2012 following several years of being held in

Harrogate Harrogate ( ) is a spa town and the administrative centre of the Borough of Harrogate in North Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically in the West Riding of Yorkshire, the town is a tourist destination and its visitor at ...

. The conference includes an extensive exhibition and also hosts CIH’s AGM.

References

External links

Chartered Institute of Housing

Housing Housing, or more generally, living spaces, refers to the construction and assigned usage of houses or buildings individually or collectively, for the purpose of shelter. Housing ensures that members of society have a place to live, whether it ...

Public housing in the United Kingdom Housing in the United Kingdom 1916 establishments in the United Kingdom 1931 establishments in the United Kingdom Housing rights organizations Organisations based in Coventry {{org-stub