Moray Citizens Advice Bureau will soon be able to help more people in the area after a planned move to a bigger base in Elgin was approved.
Moray council’s policy and resources committee backed the group’s shift from its current premises in Batchen Street to a building in Moss Street.
Manager Sandra Dow said: “The move will have a number of advantages, we can train more people as advisors and we will have more space to put in extra interview rooms.”
The group’s guidance is in such demand in the town that it has had to lease extra accommodation at its current venue.
Disability access is also poor at the Batchen Street base and this will be upgraded at the new centre.
Ms Dow said: “Having all staff housed together will bring about a lot of benefits.
“The process of finding a new location has taken us about two or three years, and the building at Moss Street is the most adaptable one we looked at.”
The Moss Street building is the former site of Elgin’s social work offices, and the bureau is looking to move there by April.
The Citizens Advice Bureau holds a lease on the Batchen Street premises until 2017, but hopes to be able to sub-let the building when it quits.
Research conducted into the Citizens Advice Bureau in 2012 found one in five people in Scotland had visited one of its centres in the recent past.
The group mainly offers advice on benefits, debt, employment, housing and relationships.