Nine young professionals became some of the first graduates from a new UK-wide housing maintenance qualification on 1 July. The skills they bring will help housing organisations, councils and contractors to manage the country's £multi-billion housing maintenance programme better.

David Montague, Group Chief Executive at L&Q, praised the new qualification, which was jointly developed by the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) and the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH), as something that was badly needed.

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Mr Montague said: "What the people studying this qualification do is essential to the quality of life of people across the country and that's why it's so important that we get it right."

The students who completed the Level 2 and Level 3 qualifications in housing maintenance have studied at Lewisham College, the first college in England to deliver the programme. Students on the course came from L&Q, London Borough of Greenwich and Hyde Housing Group. The qualifications support non-technical professionals to develop their ability to manage complex and increasingly demanding housing maintenance programmes and should tackle the problems of recruiting high quality technical staff.

(CD/JM)