Who Signed the Letter Calling for Housing Association Reform?

By David Wood · Published 20 August 2026

On 29 July 2026, Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP wrote to Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook calling for stronger accountability, redress and legal protections for housing association residents. Twenty-eight other MPs and peers added their names. Who are they, and what experience do they bring to the subject?

On 29 July 2026, Bell Ribeiro-Addy, Labour MP for Clapham and Brixton Hill, wrote to Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook with an unusually broad set of demands about the way housing association residents are treated by the current system.

The letter was signed by 29 parliamentarians: 26 MPs and three members of the House of Lords. It called for stronger enforcement of Housing Ombudsman decisions, penalties for repeated non-compliance and service failures, a more consistent compensation framework, stronger protections for housing association leaseholders, greater transparency around service charges and information rights, and clearer protections for vulnerable residents.

The letter argued that housing associations had been left out of reforms applying elsewhere in the housing sector and asked the Government to bring forward legislation.

It has subsequently been described as a cross-party intervention. That is technically correct. But a list of names tells you very little about who those people actually are. Some of the signatories have direct professional or parliamentary experience of social housing, leasehold, local government or regulation. Others bring legal, accounting or public-administration backgrounds. Some are comparatively new MPs whose parliamentary records are still short.

This is a factual guide to the people who signed it.

The letter

The letter is reproduced below as sent. The handwritten signature has been removed; nothing else has been altered.

Three pages. Select any page to view it full size.

The lead signatory

Bell Ribeiro-Addy MP — Labour, Clapham and Brixton Hill. MP since 2019.

This was not Ribeiro-Addy's first intervention on the subject. Earlier in July she had spoken in a Commons debate on commonhold, leasehold and managing agents, focusing specifically on housing association leaseholders, service-charge transparency and the difficulty residents face when responsibility is split between landlords and managing agents. In 2025 she asked Matthew Pennycook how many service-charge challenges were being brought against councils, housing associations, private landlords and managing agents in the First-tier Tribunal. In the Commons debate on 2 July 2026 she argued directly that housing association freeholders needed to be addressed in future leasehold legislation.

She sits on the Home Affairs Committee and is a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Council and Social Housing. Her recent parliamentary record contains a substantial and growing body of housing-association and leasehold work.

The co-signatories

Diane Abbott MP — Independent on the date of the letter, Hackney North and Stoke Newington. MP since 1987.

Abbott is the longest-serving MP on the list. Her career has included service as Shadow Home Secretary, Shadow Health Secretary and Shadow International Development Secretary, and she has sat on the Home Affairs, Justice, Treasury and Foreign Affairs committees.

There is a technical wrinkle about her party status. Parliament records her as an Independent from 17 July 2025. Her Labour affiliation resumed on 30 July 2026, the day after this letter was dated. She is a member of the APPG on Council and Social Housing.

Apsana Begum MP — Labour, Poplar and Limehouse. MP since 2019.

Begum has served on the Commons Education Committee. She does not hold a housing frontbench or select committee role, but her membership of the APPG on Council and Social Housing places her within the parliamentary group specifically examining council and social-rent housing.

Siân Berry MP — Green Party, Brighton Pavilion. MP since 2024.

Berry arrived in the Commons with more housing experience than most of its longer-serving members. Before becoming an MP she spent eight years on the London Assembly, serving on committees covering housing, planning and regeneration. She chaired the Assembly's Housing Committee from 2017. She is now a Green justice spokesperson and Chief Whip, and a vice-chair of the APPG on Council and Social Housing.

Matt Bishop MP — Labour, Forest of Dean. MP since 2024.

Bishop has one of the most directly relevant pre-parliamentary backgrounds on the list. Before entering the Commons he worked in policing, children's social care and as a tenancy enforcement caseworker in social housing. He has referred to that enforcement experience while serving on a Commons bill committee. He now sits on the Justice Committee.

Julia Buckley MP — Labour, Shrewsbury. MP since 2024.

Before entering Parliament, Buckley served as an unpaid non-executive director of Shropshire Towns and Rural Housing, a housing association. She was also a Shropshire councillor. She now sits on the Environmental Audit Committee and is a member of the APPG on Council and Social Housing.

Richard Burgon MP — Labour, Leeds East. MP since 2015.

Burgon is a non-practising solicitor who spent more than a decade as a trade-union lawyer before entering Parliament. He served as Shadow Lord Chancellor and Shadow Secretary of State for Justice from 2016 to 2020 and has sat on the Justice Committee. He is a member of the APPG on Council and Social Housing.

Ian Byrne MP — Labour, Liverpool West Derby. MP since 2019.

Byrne brings direct parliamentary housing experience. He served on the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee during the last Parliament, placing him within inquiries into social and affordable rented housing, building safety, cladding remediation and the planning system. He also sat on the Public Bill Committee considering the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill in 2021. He is a member of the APPG on Council and Social Housing.

Charlotte Cane MP — Liberal Democrat, Ely and East Cambridgeshire. MP since 2024.

Cane is a former district councillor and a chartered accountant who has worked in finance including in the third sector. She sits on the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee and the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments. She is the only Liberal Democrat among the 29 signatories and a member of the APPG on Council and Social Housing.

Dr Ellie Chowns MP — Green Party, North Herefordshire. MP since 2024.

Chowns served as the Green Party's spokesperson for Housing, Communities and Local Government from July 2024 until June 2026. She had previously served as a Herefordshire councillor and as a member of the European Parliament. She is now the Green Party's Westminster leader and remains a member of the APPG on Council and Social Housing.

Ben Coleman MP — Labour, Chelsea and Fulham. MP since 2024.

Coleman was elected in 2024 and sits on the Health and Social Care Committee. His published parliamentary career does not include a housing-specific role.

Stella Creasy MP — Labour, Walthamstow. MP since 2010.

Creasy previously served in local government in Waltham Forest and has sat on the Public Accounts Committee. Her parliamentary work has included a long-running focus on consumer protection and regulation, though her current roles are not housing-specific.

Neil Duncan-Jordan MP — Labour, Poole. MP since 2024.

Before entering Parliament, Duncan-Jordan worked for the National Pensioners Convention, including giving evidence to select committees on pensions and social care legislation. He later worked as a regional official for UNISON. He is a member of the APPG on Council and Social Housing.

Lord Hendy KC — Labour peer. Member of the House of Lords since 2019.

John Hendy is a senior barrister who was called to the Bar in 1972 and took silk in 1987. His practice has concentrated on employment, industrial relations, administrative and public law.

His relevance to the letter goes beyond that specialism. He represented bereaved and injured residents at the Lakanal House fire inquest and has advised the Fire Brigades Union in relation to the Grenfell Tower Inquiry. Where fire safety and housing accountability overlap, Hendy has been in the room.

Chris Hinchliff MP — Labour, North East Hertfordshire. MP since 2024.

Hinchliff chairs the APPG on Council and Social Housing, which was established in January 2026 with Shelter as its secretariat. Before entering Parliament he was a North Hertfordshire councillor and cabinet member for planning and transport. He sits on the Environmental Audit Committee.

Imran Hussain MP — Labour, Bradford East. MP since 2015.

Hussain briefly served as Shadow Minister for Levelling Up, Housing, Communities and Local Government in 2023. That gives him direct, if short, frontbench experience of the housing brief. He is a member of the APPG on Council and Social Housing.

Kim Johnson MP — Labour, Liverpool Riverside. MP since 2019.

Johnson's background is in community development and adult social care, and she worked as a UNISON representative before entering Parliament. She has served on the Education, Women and Equalities and Home Affairs committees and is a member of the APPG on Council and Social Housing.

Rebecca Long-Bailey MP — Labour, Salford. MP since 2015.

Long-Bailey is a solicitor whose pre-parliamentary career included work in landlord and tenant law before she moved into commercial law and commercial property. Her parliamentary record is directly relevant to both sides of the tenure covered by the letter: she sat on the Public Bill Committees considering the Leasehold Reform (Ground Rent) Bill and the Social Housing (Regulation) Bill.

Andy McDonald MP — Labour, Middlesbrough and Thornaby East. MP since 2012.

McDonald is a solicitor and former partner at Thompsons Solicitors. He has served on the Justice and Business and Trade committees and as Shadow Secretary of State for Transport and later Employment Rights. He is a member of the APPG on Council and Social Housing.

John McDonnell MP — Labour, Hayes and Harlington. MP since 1997.

McDonnell served as Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2015 to 2020. His committee experience has included the Justice and Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs committees. He is a member of the APPG on Council and Social Housing.

Iqbal Mohamed MP — Independent, Dewsbury and Batley. MP since 2024.

Mohamed was elected as an Independent and Parliament continues to record him as such. His pre-parliamentary background was in manufacturing, electrical engineering and business consultancy. He is a member of the APPG on Council and Social Housing.

Grahame Morris MP — Labour, Easington. MP since 2010.

Morris served briefly as Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government in 2016, giving him direct frontbench experience of the department responsible for housing policy.

James Naish MP — Labour, Rushcliffe. MP since 2024.

Naish came to Parliament from local government. He was a Bassetlaw district councillor from 2019 and leader of Bassetlaw District Council from 2022. He sits on the International Development Committee.

Kate Osborne MP — Labour, Jarrow and Gateshead East. MP since 2019.

Osborne has served on several Commons committees. Of particular relevance here, she sat on the Public Bill Committee that scrutinised the Building Safety Bill in 2021.

Yasmin Qureshi MP — Labour, Bolton South and Walkden. MP since 2010.

Qureshi is a barrister who worked for the Crown Prosecution Service and later led the criminal legal section of the United Nations mission in Kosovo. She served as a Shadow Justice Minister from 2016 to 2020, and her own parliamentary biography records leasehold and commonhold reform among her responsibilities in that role.

Lord Sikka — Labour peer. Member of the House of Lords since 2020.

Prem Sikka is Emeritus Professor of Accounting at the University of Sheffield and University of Essex. His academic work has covered auditing, corporate governance, accountancy regulation, insolvency and public accountability. His background is particularly relevant to those parts of the letter concerning transparency, financial information and service charges. He has advised and given evidence to parliamentary committees on corporate and accounting matters.

Jon Trickett MP — Labour, Normanton and Hemsworth. MP since 1996.

Trickett served as Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government from September 2015 to June 2016, the predecessor department to the present Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. He has also served on the Public Accounts Committee.

Nadia Whittome MP — Labour, Nottingham East. MP since 2019.

Whittome served on the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee from November 2022 until the 2024 general election. She is a member of the APPG on Council and Social Housing.

Lord Woodley — Labour peer. Member of the House of Lords since 2020.

Tony Woodley is a former General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union and joint General Secretary of Unite. His background is in employment and industrial relations rather than housing.

The overlap with Parliament's social-housing group

The APPG on Council and Social Housing is useful context because it provides an identifiable parliamentary network around the subject.

Seventeen of the 29 signatories are members of the APPG: Ribeiro-Addy, Abbott, Begum, Berry, Buckley, Burgon, Byrne, Cane, Chowns, Duncan-Jordan, Hinchliff, Hussain, Johnson, McDonald, McDonnell, Mohamed and Whittome. Hinchliff chairs the group and Berry is a vice-chair.

The APPG says it has 78 parliamentarians and exists to support debate and policy change around council and social housing. The overlap means that for a majority of the letter's signatories, this was not their only formal parliamentary association with the subject.

Who did not sign?

A list of non-signatories needs more care than a list of signatories. This site has no evidence about who was asked, who saw it, whether anyone declined, or what any non-signatory thinks about the proposals. The absence of a name should not be treated as evidence of opposition.

There are nevertheless some omissions worth recording.

Rushanara Ali MP, Labour MP for Bethnal Green and Stepney, is perhaps the most obvious name to look for. She served as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at MHCLG from July 2024 until August 2025 and had previously sat on the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee. She is not among the 29 signatories. That fact establishes only that her name does not appear on the letter. Without evidence that she was invited to sign, nothing further can safely be inferred.

Bob Blackman MP, Conservative MP for Harrow East, has one of the longest parliamentary housing records of any MP who did not sign. He served on the Housing, Communities and Local Government Committee for much of the period from 2010 to 2024, sat on the bill committees for the Social Housing (Regulation) Bill and the Supported Housing (Regulatory Oversight) Bill, and chairs the APPG for Ending Homelessness. His absence is also relevant to the political composition of the letter: there are no Conservative signatories.

Lord Best is notable for a different reason. He is a Crossbench peer whose entire career has been concentrated on housing. He was chief executive of the National Housing Federation for 15 years, chief executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, chair of Hanover Housing Association and chair of the Government's Regulation of Property Agents Working Group. As recently as March 2026 he gave evidence to the HCLG Committee on commonhold and leasehold reforms. He did not sign the letter, and there are no Crossbench peers among its signatories.

How cross-party was it?

Calling the letter cross-party is factually correct. On the parliamentary affiliations recorded on its date, the 29 signatories comprised 24 Labour MPs or peers, two Green MPs, one Liberal Democrat MP and two Independents. One of those Independents was Diane Abbott, whose Labour affiliation resumed the following day. The other was Iqbal Mohamed, elected as an Independent and still recorded as such.

The letter crossed party lines, but it was predominantly Labour. There were no Conservative signatories and no Crossbench peers.

There is another dimension to that composition. Matthew Pennycook is a minister in a Labour Government. Most of the signatories were therefore members of the governing party asking their own Government to act. That is not necessarily a weakness. It may, depending on how the Government responds, turn out to be a strength.

At the same time, the presence of Green, Liberal Democrat and Independent signatories means the concerns were not confined to one party.

More significant than the party labels may be the range of experience behind the signatures. The list includes two former Shadow Secretaries of State for Communities and Local Government, a former shadow housing minister, a former Green housing spokesperson, former and current members of the Commons housing committee, the chair and a vice-chair of the APPG on Council and Social Housing, a former housing-association board member, a former social-housing tenancy enforcement officer, solicitors and barristers, a chartered accountant and a professor of accounting. Seventeen of the 29 are members of Parliament's social-housing APPG.

None of that determines whether the proposals in the letter are right or wrong. But it does answer a simpler question. When 29 parliamentarians put their names to a call for greater accountability of housing associations, who exactly were they?

Not simply a collection of names at the bottom of a letter. A substantial proportion already have identifiable experience of housing, local government, law, regulation, accounting or the parliamentary scrutiny of social landlords. Whatever the Government does with the letter, it cannot reasonably dismiss it as uninformed.