The Regulator of Social Housing’s new Competence and Conduct Standard is now in force, bringing new expectations around the skills, knowledge, experience and behaviour of people delivering landlord services in England.
For social landlords, the immediate task is broader than checking whether senior managers have the right housing qualification. The standard also covers workforce development, performance management, codes of conduct, tenant involvement and the people delivering services on a landlord’s behalf. Although some qualification requirements are being phased in, the wider standard applies from 1 October 2026.
What is the RSH Competence and Conduct Standard?
The Competence and Conduct Standard is a new consumer standard requiring registered providers of social housing in England to ensure that relevant staff have the skills, knowledge and experience needed to deliver good-quality landlord services, while also exhibiting appropriate behaviours.
It applies not only to a landlord’s own workforce but also requires registered providers to take appropriate steps in relation to relevant staff working for service providers. Alongside this overall outcome, landlords must maintain a written policy covering workforce competence and development, adopt or develop a code of conduct and give tenants meaningful opportunities to influence and scrutinise those arrangements.
The standard sits alongside the RSH’s other consumer standards. It follows wider reforms intended to strengthen professionalism and accountability within social housing, including changes introduced through the Social Housing (Regulation) Act 2023. The qualification requirements for senior staff have understandably attracted much of the attention, but landlords that focus only on qualifications risk missing a substantial part of what the new standard requires.
What changed on 1 October 2026?
From 1 October, the RSH began regulating landlords against the Competence and Conduct Standard in the same way that it regulates compliance with its other consumer standards. The transition periods that have been widely discussed apply specifically to the qualification requirements. There is no equivalent transition period for the rest of the standard.
This means landlords should already be able to explain how they manage and develop competence across relevant roles, how they review staff performance, what happens when performance falls short and how expected behaviours are embedded within the organisation. They also need a written policy addressing these areas and an appropriate code of conduct. Both must be kept up to date and fit for purpose, made accessible to tenants and developed in a way that gives tenants meaningful opportunities to influence and scrutinise them.
For organisations that have treated October 2026 primarily as the beginning of a three or four-year qualification project, this distinction is important. Qualification planning can be phased. The wider competence and conduct framework cannot simply be deferred until 2029 or 2030.
Who is covered and who needs qualifications?
There are two different questions for landlords to work through. The wider standard applies to relevant staff involved in the provision of landlord services. It is therefore much broader than a small group of senior managers. Landlords need to consider whether people involved in delivering those services have the appropriate skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours for their roles.
The mandatory qualification requirements are narrower. Senior Housing Managers who fall within scope must hold, or be working towards, an appropriate Level 4 housing management qualification. Senior Housing Executives within scope require an appropriate Level 5 qualification or foundation degree. Equivalent or higher-level qualifications may also satisfy the requirements where they meet the detailed criteria in the government’s policy statement.
Job titles alone don’t determine whether somebody is covered. The policy considers the substance of the role, including whether managing the delivery of housing management services is a significant part of the individual’s responsibilities. Guidance accompanying the policy is intended to help landlords assess roles against these criteria.
This makes a workforce mapping exercise a sensible starting point. Rather than simply identifying everyone with “manager” or “director” in their title, providers should look at who actually manages or directs housing management services, what their responsibilities involve and what qualifications they already hold.
What social landlords need to review now
The new requirements should prompt a broader review of how competence and conduct are managed rather than the creation of one standalone compliance document.
Competence, learning and development
The required written policy must explain how the organisation manages and develops the skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours of relevant staff, including how this approach is tailored to different roles. It must also cover learning and development and how staff continue to demonstrate appropriate and up-to-date competence.
Landlords should therefore be able to connect individual roles with the capabilities required to perform them effectively. Existing job descriptions, training matrices, professional development arrangements and competency frameworks are all worth reviewing against the new standard. The important question is not simply whether training has been completed, but whether the organisation can demonstrate that people remain capable of delivering good-quality services.
Performance and poor performance
The policy must also address how relevant staff are appraised and how their performance is reviewed regularly, including the organisation’s approach to managing poor performance. This gives the standard a practical link to everyday management. A landlord may already have appraisal and HR processes in place, but it should consider whether those arrangements adequately assess the skills and behaviours that matter to the quality of landlord services.
Code of conduct
Registered providers must develop or adopt an appropriate code of conduct for relevant staff and ensure that it is embedded within the organisation. A policy that exists on an intranet but has little bearing on induction, management, performance conversations or the way tenants are treated is unlikely to achieve the intended outcome.
The code also needs to remain current and fit for purpose. Landlords should consider how staff are made aware of it, how expected behaviours are reinforced and how concerns about conduct are addressed.
Tenant involvement
The standard gives tenants a direct role in this work. They must have meaningful opportunities to influence and scrutinise the development of the written competence policy and decisions around adopting or developing the code of conduct. Both documents must also be accessible to tenants.
This means tenant involvement shouldn’t be treated as a final consultation once the documents have effectively been completed. Providers will need to decide how residents can contribute meaningfully and how that input will be evidenced.
Don't overlook contractors and service providers
The standard extends beyond directly employed staff. Registered providers must take appropriate steps to secure that relevant staff working for their service providers also have the skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours needed to deliver good-quality landlord services. That makes this a contract management issue as well as a workforce issue.
Landlords should consider what assurance they currently receive from organisations delivering services on their behalf. Depending on the arrangement, that could involve reviewing contractual requirements, competency evidence, training expectations, performance information and the way conduct concerns are escalated.
The qualification rules for service providers are more specific. They apply where a provider delivers a comprehensive social housing management service, subject to the detailed criteria and exemptions in the policy statement. A contractor delivering only one housing management function may therefore be treated differently for the qualification element.
There are also steps concerning service providers that are not covered by the general qualification transition period, so landlords with significant outsourced housing management arrangements should review the current policy statement rather than assuming everything can wait until 2029 or 2030.
This is also an opportunity to look beyond contractual wording. Our work with housing providers on social housing procurement and contract management regularly comes back to the same underlying issue: requirements need to be clear enough to procure, monitor and manage in practice.
When do the qualification requirements take effect?
The standard is already live, but landlords have longer to meet the relevant qualification requirements.
Provider |
Qualification requirements broadly apply from |
|---|---|
1,000 or more social homes |
1 October 2029 |
Fewer than 1,000 social homes |
1 October 2030 |
That gives providers time to identify staff within scope, review existing qualifications and plan how any gaps will be addressed. It shouldn’t, however, encourage landlords to leave the exercise until shortly before the deadline. Training capacity, staff turnover and the time required to complete qualifications all need to be considered, particularly where several people are affected.
The policy also includes detailed provisions covering existing, equivalent, higher-level and partially compliant qualifications. Providers should therefore check an employee’s current qualification against the policy before assuming that a completely new course is required.
What should social landlords do now?
For most providers, the sensible next step is to turn the standard into a manageable programme of work rather than treating it as a single compliance deadline. As part of your review process, you should:
- Map the workforce. Identify relevant staff under the wider standard and separately determine which senior managers and executives fall within the qualification requirements.
- Review existing qualifications. Record what people already hold before deciding where new training is required.
- Check the written policy. Make sure it covers competence, learning and development, performance review, poor performance and the organisation's approach to relevant service-provider staff.
- Review the code of conduct. Confirm that it is appropriate, current, accessible and genuinely embedded within day-to-day working practices.
- Plan tenant involvement. Decide how residents will influence and scrutinise the policy and code rather than treating engagement as a last-minute sign-off exercise.
- Review outsourced arrangements. Establish what evidence and assurance you receive about competence and conduct from contractors and other service providers.
- Create an evidence trail. Be clear about how the organisation can demonstrate that these arrangements are working in practice, not merely that policies exist.
The RSH regulates the standard using an outcomes-based approach rather than prescribing one identical operating model for every landlord. That gives providers flexibility, but it also means each organisation needs to be able to explain why its own arrangements are appropriate for its services, workforce and tenants.
If you're currently applying to become a registered provider, these requirements are also relevant to the wider question of whether your proposed organisation has credible governance, staffing and delivery arrangements. Our guide to becoming a registered social housing provider explains the wider RSH registration process.
How Thornton & Lowe can support social housing organisations
Thornton & Lowe works with housing organisations through a wider social housing consultancy offer covering areas such as registered provider support, procurement, contract management and advisory services. Our housing advisory model can include workshops, research, templates, evidence gathering, review and retained critical friend support. For registered provider applications, clients can ask us to lead on drafting and evidence or prepare their own material for independent review, with housing sector expertise built into the delivery team.
Thornton & Lowe can add value to your housing organisation by helping you to examine your wider governance, delivery, procurement and evidence requirements, identify gaps and turn regulatory expectations into practical work. For organisations already registered, or those working towards registration, that broader view can be useful as the regulatory expectations placed on social landlords continue to develop.
