Today we celebrate International Women’s Day.

We marked the occasion last Friday with an early celebration of the talented women working on our Haymarket Edinburgh development.

Hosted by Qmile Group and architects Michael Laird, which is delivering the fit out of Buildings 4 and 5 at the £350m scheme, the event offered an opportunity for women to discuss their collective experience in the industry and how we can forge a path to creating an inclusive environment for everyone's voice.

It was great to hear from so many women across such a wide range of disciplines and backgrounds. These included architecture, design management, project management, interior design, engineering, property development and client occupiers.

Common themes discussed were how we can support each other in our roles, promoting equality at networking events and communication. We continued our discussion on site to celebrate the construction progress made to date.

However, discussing the statistics regarding women in construction on the day highlighted the need for progress that is still to be made.

Women make up only 15 per cent of the construction industry. Of these only 16.2 per cent of people in director or senior management positions are women and just one per cent are trade professionals.

We’re very pleased to be breaking this trend on such a high-profile Edinburgh project, but we appreciate there is still much to be done to redress the balance.

Importantly, this must be both through inspiring women to enter the construction industry and supporting them throughout their career.

We know not all areas of construction are at this balance, and that’s why we think this year’s theme – Embrace Equity – is so important.

Designed by globally renowned architect Foster + Partners and being built by main contractor Sir Robert McAlpine, Haymarket Edinburgh will deliver more than 390,000 sq ft of Grade A office space. All the office space has been pre-let.

The four-acre site will comprise five buildings, three of which will be offices and the other two Edinburgh’s largest hotel with 362-bedrooms and a hotel training academy.

The four-star hotel will be operated by Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) under a franchise agreement with Hyatt Hotels Corporation.

We now look forward to completing Haymarket Edinburgh together with the fantastic team of women who will ensure its continued success.