What the Competence and Conduct mandatory housing qualifications mean for you

The Competence and Conduct Standard is one of the biggest things to shake up the sector’s professionalism in several years. With its roots going back to the Grenfell Tower tragedy in 2014 and more recently with the death of Awaab Ishak, the standard aims to tackle poor service due to insufficient staff training. 

Although only one part of the standard, mandated qualifications are the one part which affects the most individuals in the workforce. 

In October 2026, most people at either a managerial or executive level working in housing will need to have or be working towards their relevant regulated housing qualification. 

What is the Competence and Conduct Standard? 

We’ve put together a full page outlining more about the standard which you can read on our website, this has more detail about each of the question below. CIH also has a dedicated page outlining more on historical qualifications and other resources needing to be considered during this implementation. 

Who needs to complete or have a qualification? 

The standard sets out who is ‘in scope’ of needing to have a relevant qualification. It is the responsibility of organisations to decide who those people are within their own organisations; they will need to be able to justify their decision making to the Social Housing Regulator who will be monitoring the standard requirements. 

According to the policy a summary of those in scope is below, but it is essential that organisations take more advice when making their decisions as this is just a top-level overview. 

Senior housing managers 

Anyone who works in the management of delivering housing management services, and they must spend the majority of their working time on this.  

They need to have or be working towards a Level 4 qualification. 

Senior housing executives 

Senior leaders and executives in similar roles as above must achieve a Level 5 qualification. 

What does the qualification need to cover? 

The qualifications must cover specific content areas to be considered relevant, there are three different subsections of role types depending on the function area.  

Subsection A – for anyone working in general housing management functions 

For those requiring a Level 4 qualification the qualification must cover: Professional practice skills 

• Equality, diversity and inclusion
• Customer service
• National housing policy. 

For those requiring a Level 5 qualification the qualification must cover: 

• Everything from Level 4
• Leadership and management
• Stakeholder engagement. 

Subsection B – for those in technical housing management functions e.g. asset management or building safety 

As per subsection A or the equivalent level qualification in their technical subject area. 

Subsection C – for anyone working in cross tenure roles e.g. working in social and leasehold housing management 

As per subsection A or the equivalent level qualification in their specialist subject area. 

When do qualifications need to be completed by? 

The standard comes into force in October 2026, but providers have transition periods to allow them time to prepare:

• Large providers (1,000+ homes): 3-year transition period (until October 2029) 
• Small providers (under 1,000 homes): 4-year transition period (until October 2030) 

Anyone already in scope as of October 2026 must be working towards their qualification by the end of their transition period. New starters in these roles after October 2026 must enrol within 12 months of starting in their role. 

While this may seem like a long time, housing organisations should act now. With potentially thousands of staff across the sector needing qualifications, training providers such as the CIH Housing Academy will face unprecedented demand. Waiting until the last minute could mean struggling to secure places, facing escalating costs, and putting unnecessary pressure on your workforce to complete their qualifications in a shorter timeframe. 

What should everyone be doing now? 

Don’t wait until it’s too late. Ensure your organisation is starting to map the workforce to work out who is in scope. If you think you might be in scope and you already have a CIH qualification you can help by finding out if your previous qualification was regulated and matches the content requirements by checking the CIH website. 

Hopefully this blog sets out how the CIH Housing Academy might be able to support you with your qualification requirements. However, the Competence and Conduct Standard is more than just qualifications, so we also have a training course designed to support you and your organisation in preparing for the standard.