Our Pet Friendly Housing Pilot
Our Pet Friendly Housing Pilot is a 3-year project running in Scotland aiming to improve the experience of current and future pet owners accessing social housing.
Pets are important family members, and our work aims to have this recognised throughout the housing system. The pilot also encourages responsible pet ownership and promotes high animal welfare standards.
We want more tenants to be able to keep pets in all types of rented accommodation. We have long campaigned for statutory rights for tenants to be able to keep a pet across all types of housing and have worked to strengthen legislation progressing through the Scottish and UK Parliaments. Through this Pilot and our wider Public Affairs work we will continue to push for changes that will reinforce the huge benefits of dog companionship.
Dogs Trust is currently partnered with Manor Estates Housing Association to enhance their pet friendly offer and positively impact all tenants, staff and the local community. We are working closely together to gather insights from tenants and staff regarding experiences of pets within their homes and communities. We are reviewing Manor Estates’ pet policy and associated documents to ensure responsible pet ownership is promoted and staff can support tenants with this as required. Throughout the partnership, a template Pet Policy and Pet Friendly Housing Toolkit will be developed. The toolkit will provide a set of guidelines other social housing providers can then follow to welcome and support pet owners within their homes.
Once Manor Estates have taken the required steps, they will be officially accredited by Dogs Trust as Scotland's first pet friendly social landlord. In 2025 we will use the Toolkit to engage with and accredit other Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) and local authorities in Scotland.
This pilot has been made possible thanks to the generous support from players of People’s Postcode Lottery who have raised over £24 million for Dogs Trust since 2013. This crucial funding awarded through Postcode Animal Trust, is helping to support our work towards improving pet friendly accommodation for everyone.
Together, People’s Postcode Lottery and Dogs Trust will demonstrate the importance of accessible pet friendly accommodation to lobby the government for lasting systemic changes in improving pet friendly accommodation options throughout the housing sector.
Our mission: keeping pets and their owners together throughout the housing journey.
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