Earlier this week, Building published its interview with Thouria Istephan, the interim chief construction adviser, about her journey from the Grenfell Tower Inquiry and her focus on competence as the thread running through reform of the built environment.

In that interview, she argued that the breadth of the role for her successor reflects the scale and complexity of the building safety challenge facing government, and stressed that the job advert should be read as describing the “office” rather than an all‑seeing individual.

As the government now seeks to appoint a permanent chief construction and scientific adviser, we have asked senior figures in the industry to share their initial views on the scope, structure and ambition of the newly created role - applications close next week (13 April).