Holyrood PR TV Episode 116

It’s been another busy week at Holyrood PR as we’ve been discovering how experts in housing are moving out themselves, encouraging farmers to capitalise on the booming venison market and finding out how local pupils have been helping OAPs become silver surfers.

First up, a housing specialist which has helped thousands of Scots to find the perfect property is now moving to a new home of its own. After 30 years in the west of Edinburgh, housing and care specialist Blackwood is relocating to new city centre premises, after it spent months searching for the ideal new location. Within the next month around 60 staff will make the move from the 1970s concrete block to the ground floor of a modern and airy office development at Dundee Street. Reflecting its expertise in adapting properties to suit the needs of wheelchair users, the new space has been designed to be fully accessible for all. This means it has been fitted with state of the art technology including rise and fall kitchens and wheelchair friendly work stations. The story of Blackwood’s big move was picked up by The Scotsman, Edinburgh Evening News and Care Industry News.

Next up, leading land management agents Bell Ingram are encouraging farmers to seize opportunities in the thriving Scottish venison market by providing key advice on potential funding channels to diversify their business. The drive for deer farming follows a recent announcement from the Scottish Venison Partnership that there is an unmet demand in the market. Surprisingly the UK is currently a net importer of venison despite Scotland’s prime deer farming environment. Bell Ingram are assisting farmers to invest in the trade by offering advice on how the agricultural mortgage corporation can provide them with the financial boost they require to diversify into deer. The story has been picked up by Edinburgh Evening News, Farming Life and The Scottish Farmer.

And finally, two high school pupils have been handing out their own education lessons to give a group of older people a crash course in tweeting, Skyping and shopping online. Residents at Bield’s Mosside Court – a very sheltered housing development in Blackburn – are being taught essential computing and internet skills as part of its fit together scheme. The intergenerational project has been funded by Bield to encourage tenants to improve their IT skills using tablet computers. Bield hope to roll out the fit together project across other developments and local authority areas in the near future and the story was featured on Care Industry News.

That’s it for this week’s HPR TV but you can keep up to date throughout the week by visiting our website and connecting with us on Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and Google Plus.