”You would never send your child to school to be taught by a teacher who isn’t qualified or a sick person to a hospital with doctors who aren’t qualified, it’s really important that people on the frontline of housing management hold a qualification.”

These comments, from Ed Daffarn, a former Grenfell resident and member of the Grenfell United campaign group, sum up the thinking behind the introduction of mandatory professional qualifications in the housing sector. It is one of several regulatory measures that campaigners have been calling for which will come into force next spring under the Social Housing (Regulation) Act.

There has been widespread support for the introduction of housing manager qualifications across housing associations, councils and bodies such as the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) and the National Housing Federation (NHF). The support of the former, of course, as a qualifications provider, should not be surprising.