Supporting housing professionals to create a future in which everyone has a place to call home.

We are the professional body for people who work in housing, the independent voice for housing and the home of professional standards. We promote the art and science of housing and act in the interest of our members and the public.

Our goals
Be a successful, sustainable and well respected organisation

Objectives

  • Establish a future-focused business model which achieves and maintains financial and environmental sustainability
  • Ensure continuous improvement in infrastructure maximising opportunities to exploit new technologies and innovation
  • Develop a future-focused governance function which provides constructive challenge
  • Commit to being a diverse and inclusive organisation that reflects the housing sector and the communities it represents
  • Become a dynamic, market leading employer of choice

We will do this by

  • Achieving a balance between delivery of current priorities and investment in new activities
  • Working towards becoming environmentally sustainable and carbon neutral in delivering our services
  • Transforming and enhancing our digital presence
  • Ensuring our board members have the skills and support they need to set strategic direction and manage strategic and operational risk
  • Increase the diversity of our governance and boards structure
  • Empowering the Equality, Diversity and Inclusion group to drive positive change within CIH
  • Recognising and attracting high performing people who understand and can contribute to our purpose and values
  • Embedding excellent internal and external customer care across CIH
Be a first choice, member driven organisation, responsive to the profession

Objectives

  • Engage with, listen to and respond to our members
  • Provide a compelling range of member benefits to ensure continued membership growth
  • Develop partnerships to enhance and expand the member offer
  • Create opportunities for people who work in housing to be recognised as professionals and be valued for their knowledge, skills and behaviours
  • Offer a standardised, stable and sustainable international member offer

We will do this by

  • Being agile in responding to our members’ needs and understand what they need from us in different or challenging operating environments
  • Achieving a more diverse membership footprint
  • Engaging members and customers with agile, innovative and relevant products and services
  • Developing and embedding a dynamic continuing professional development offer
  • Collaborating with organisations that share our goals to enhance the member offer
  • Demonstrating the value of professionalism for both individuals and employers to raise the profile and status of the housing profession
  • Creating a housing profession that can be sustained in the face of an ever-changing, political, economic, social and technological landscape
Provide relevant, current professional development for a world class housing profession

Objectives

  • Establish a professional development strategy which encourages and supports personal and professional aspirations
  • Be the recognised leader in developing, upholding and assuring standards and practice for the housing profession
  • Offer leading educational products and services which prepare the housing sector for the future
  • Maximise opportunities to align our offer and gain/retain external recognition

We will do this by

  • Setting and maintaining the benchmark for professional development across the sector
  • Creating a professional development framework to provide a route map through all products and services
  • Offering high quality development activities which reflect the everchanging political, economic, social and technological landscape and enable career development and progression
  • Setting and maintaining the benchmark for professional standards in housing, ensuring routes to chartered membership are valid and reflect current practice
  • Developing and promoting products that meet the needs of professionals across the UK and internationally
  • Exploiting new technologies to support our product offer and enhance our delivery opportunities
  • Ensuring our regulated offer remains nationally recognised,compliant and fit for purpose
Be the leading voice for the housing profession across the UK

Objectives

  • Use our public voice, influence and reputation to effect positive change in housing
  • Build effective public affairs engagement
  • Provide a relevant, distinctive, well understood and supported policy platform in all four nations
  • Promote the role and value of our members within and as representatives of the housing profession
  • Become the leading source for good practice advice
  • Deliver a successful and growing high quality events offer

We will do this by

  • Developing a stakeholder engagement strategy to appropriately target our work and make the case for housing across all four constituents parts of the UK
  • Undertaking research on key aspects of policy and disseminating findings to contribute to national influencing work
  • Creating effective, trusted relationships with key political stakeholders, regulators, media outlets and other external influencers
  • Increasing the member voice in our externally facing work drawing on the views and experience of our members to shape the debate and the future of housing policy
  • Making the case for the importance of housing professionals and their work in policy design and operational delivery
  • Targeting our policy and engagement work to provide relevant, influential and opinion shaping thought leadership to realise positive change in the housing sector
  • Identifying and working with partners who enhance our offer and provide added value to the housing sector

CIH is a registered charity and not-for-profit organisation. This means that the money we make is put back into the organisation and funds the activities we carry out to support the housing sector.

We have a diverse membership of people who work in both the public and private sectors, in 20 countries on five continents across the world.

England charity number 244067/R and Scotland number SCO40324.

Become a member today

Join the UK’s biggest housing professional network.

Gain professional recognition across the sector by demonstrating your commitment to creating a housing system where everyone has a place to call home.

As a CIH member you will gain access to the latest sector-leading knowledge and best practice, free attendance our events and training, and much more.

Find out more

How we are run

We are a registered charity, with education at the core of our charitable status. That means we must comply with the requirements of the law relating to charities. Our activities are regulated by the Charity Commissioners in England and Wales, and the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator in Scotland.

We were granted a Royal Charter in 1984 and our work is governed by our Royal Charter and Byelaws, overseen by the Privy Council. You can read more about our history here.

View our corporate plan 2021-2024

We have outlined our objectives for the next three years in our corporate plan.

Download

Code of conduct
Individuals who are part of our incredible membership network are required to uphold the CIH code of conduct to evidence their professionalism and dedication to the sector, in addition to their commitment CIH’s mission, principles and values.
Code of ethics
The CIH code of ethics consists of a set of values, principles and behaviours that guide the expected professional conduct and judgement of CIH members.
Equality, diversity and inclusion
We are committed to continuing to promote a variety of cultures and diversity across the housing sector. We'll continually challenge everything that we do to ensure that all aspects of our work are inclusive.

Our campaigns

CIH’s foundation as a social purpose organisation provides opportunities for us to challenge thinking and decisions, in a constructive and evidence-based manner.

Learn more about our campaigns, and find out what we are doing to shape the future of housing policy and bring about positive change in the housing sector.

Find out more

Get involved

The various voluntary groups across CIH are an integral piece of our organisation's puzzle. They help us to improve our services, develop relevant content, training, and products, as well as strengthen our voice in the housing profession.

Find out more about our voluntary groups and how you can help us continue to create a future where everyone has a place to call home.

Find out more

Discover more about what we do

Education
Our goal is simple – we provide everyone involved in housing with the skills, knowledge and behaviours you need to be brilliant.
Events
CIH events are brilliant opportunities to learn with inspiring and challenging speakers from housing and beyond, to build networks with colleagues, solve problems and scan the horizon.
Policy work
The policy team works hard to support members with policy knowledge and influence key decision-makers on policy implementation.