Social Rented Housing Sector

Bell Ribeiro-Addy Excerpts

Thursday 12th February 2026 Commons Chamber

[Florence Eshalomi]

I always thank the hon. Member for his wonderful, timely interventions on many issues across the House. Conditions in homes have an impact on all constituency MPs across the UK: it is a big issue that we see weekly in our inboxes and our advice surgeries, so it is important that we share best practice and learning from other regions in the UK.

[Bell Ribeiro-Addy (Clapham and Brixton Hill) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend and constituency neighbour for her excellent report. Does she agree that housing associations sometimes try to get the heat taken off them by employing managing agents? When constituents approach them for repairs and so on, they are often sent back from one to the other. I have had particular incidents at the Darcus Howe apartments on Brixton Hill, where Notting Hill Genesis, which is the housing association, and Crabtree keep shirking the responsibility for providing some vital changes. For example, people could not get heating between November and January, the coldest months. Does my hon. Friend think that more should be done? Perhaps we should be better able to hold people criminally liable for the situations in which they put our constituents.

[Florence Eshalomi]

I thank my constituency neighbour for highlighting just one of the many examples that Members across the Chamber will have seen in their inboxes. We need to recognise how some housing associations that receive Government grants to build homes are treating their tenants. It is important to direct residents to the Regulator of Social Housing and other avenues. I hope that the management issue will come up in the forthcoming commonhold and leasehold legislation.