Government confirms October 2026 date for Competence and Conduct Standard for social housing to come into force

In its response to consultation, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government also confirmed – as trailed in July this year – an extension to those transition periods.

This followed concerns among landlords responding to the consultation that the 24-months transition period proposed was too short.

Transition periods will now be three years for registered providers who have 1,000 homes or more, and four years for those with fewer than 1,000 homes.

Requirements for the professionalisation of managers are among measures that followed the Grenfell Tower fire disaster.

The standard means those deemed senior housing managers and executives will be required to hold or be working towards a relevant qualification.

The Ministry said: “The introduction of the Competence and Conduct Standard stems directly from the evidence heard by the Grenfell inquiry and forms part of the government’s wider response to the tragedy.

“The inquiry heard that a lack of appropriate staff training contributed to the tragedy and that residents’ fears and complaints about living conditions were disregarded by staff.”

Consultation on the social housing green paper had revealed similar concerns about the safety and quality of social housing, which “suggested that the issues uncovered following the Grenfell tragedy were indicative of the wider experiences of social tenants across the country”.

The Government will issue the Regulator of Social Housing with a final direction to set a standard which requires registered providers to:

• the direction requires the Regulator to set a standard which requires registered providers to:
• secure that those of their staff who are relevant individuals have the necessary skills, knowledge and experience, and exhibit the behaviours needed, for the relevant services provided by those individuals to be of a good quality
• take appropriate steps to secure that those of their services providers’ staff who are relevant individuals have the necessary skills, knowledge and experience, and exhibit the behaviours needed, for the relevant services provided by those individuals, under or pursuant to the relevant management services agreement, to be of a good quality
• have a written policy setting out their approach to a number of things such as learning and development, appraising staff, and managing poor performance
• adopt or develop an appropriate code of conduct for those of their staff who are relevant individuals and to ensure this is embedded within their organisation
• give tenants meaningful opportunities to influence and scrutinise the development of the policy, and decisions relating to the code of conduct, and ensure they are made accessible to tenants and kept up to date and fit for purpose
• comply with all applicable requirements relating to the qualification requirements as set out in Chapters 1 to 6 of the accompanying policy statement, which means they must secure that their Senior Housing Executives and Senior Housing Managers have, or are working towards, a specified qualification, or type of qualification, in housing management and take steps to secure that relevant managers of their services providers also gain a specified qualification

The Government response can be found here.

Mark Smulian