The Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) has criticised the regulator’s plans to do away with a dedicated standard for competence and conduct saying the move could “downgrade its importance”.

Under proposals set out by the Regulator of Social Housing (RSH), the requirements of the proposed Competence and Conduct Standard for social landlords are to be incorporated into the existing Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard (TI&A).

In its response to the RSH consultation, the professional body for housing said it was “surprised” to see the competence and conduct requirements “condensed into an outcome in section 1.8 of the TI&A standard”.

The CIH said: “While embedding the new competence and conduct requirements within the existing Transparency, Influence and Accountability Standard may support coherence across the consumer standards, we believe a standalone standard would have provided a stronger signal about the centrality of competence and professional conduct to service quality and resident safety.

“We were surprised not to see a separate and standalone competence and conduct standard and would welcome assurance from the regulator that this approach does not in any way signal a downgrading of the importance of these requirements within the consumer standards.”

As part of its response, the CIH included a quote from a recent article by council tenant and HQN associate Rob Gershon, who wrote: “I really feel like tenants expected more from the Regulation of Social Housing Act – and the regulator – than a sub-category of another standard to cover all of the issues they should expect their landlords to cover in Competence and Conduct policy.”

The CIH added: “If this is not to be changed, we hope to see the RSH make it quite clear, through its statements, inspections and reports, how important these new requirements are to being fully compliant with social housing regulation.

“It should reinforce that the requirements expressed in this way continue to carry full regulatory and legal weight.”