The executive is pursuing a dispersal policy

The staff faced with moving work for the housing body, Communities Scotland. They will be transferred over the next two years.

The agency, which will keep its headquarters in the capital, also has offices in Paisley, Hamilton, Dundee, Aberdeen, Inverness and Ayr.

It is responsible for regeneration, as well as housing investment.

Communities Minister Malcolm Chisholm said: "I acknowledge the impact this decision will have on the staff involved.

'Considerable benefits'

"However, I believe that this plan has considerable benefits in bringing our service delivery closer to stakeholders."

Some 1,400 workers have been switched from Edinburgh so far. Only 40 out of 182 Scottish Natural Heritage staff said in February they would move when the quango transferred its headquarters to Inverness.

Ministers were forced in June to drop plans to relocate the Mental Welfare Commission to Falkirk.

The executive reversed its decision to move the body from Edinburgh because it has no legal power to tell the commission what to do.