A cross-party group of MPs and peers have launched a scathing attack on housing associations and the regulatory framework in which they operate for ‘failing’ tenants and leaseholders.

In a letter to the housing minister Matthew Pennycook, Labour MP Bell Ribeiro-Addy and 28 co-signatories have called for the government to strengthen the powers of the Housing Ombudsman, including stronger penalties for landlord non-compliance and criminal prosecution for repeated service failures.

The letter states: “We strongly believe that residents in housing association properties across the country are being failed…by landlords who face insufficient accountability, by complaints processes that exhaust rather than resolve, and by a regulatory framework that has not kept pace with reforms elsewhere in the housing sector.

“We are therefore asking the government to address this during this parliamentary session.”

The MPs’ letter identifies four key areas that they believe require attention: Enforcement redress and ombudsman compliance, fair and consistent compensation, leaseholder protections and service charges, and transparency, information rights and support for vulnerable residents.

The letter adds: “Through our casework, we regulatory support tenants and leaseholders in HA-managed properties whose experience points to systemic weakness in the current regulatory and redress framework. In many cases, the mechanisms intended to help residents hold their landlord to account either do not apply to housing associations or are ineffective in practice, allowing issues to be delayed, obscured or left unresolved.

It concludes: “Housing associations play a vital role in the provision of social housing. However, the current framework does not consistently deliver the accountability, transparency and redress that residents and leaseholders are entitled to expect.

“We are calling on the government to bring forward legislative proposals to address these issues and would welcome a meeting to discuss these issues further.

In addition to Bell Ribeiro-Addy, the letter has been signed by the following MPs: Andy McDonald, Julia Buckley, Apsana Begum, Kate Osborne, Ben Coleman, Kim Johnson, Charlotte Cane, Lord John  Hendy, Chris Hinchcliff, Lord Prem Sikka, Diane Abbott, Lord Tony Woodley, Ellie Chowns, Matt Bishop, Grahame Morris, Nadia Whittome, Ian Byrne, Neil Duncan-Jordan, Imran Hussain, Rebecca Long-Bailey, Iqbal Mohamed, Richard Burgon, James Naish, Sian Berry, John  McDonnell, Stella Creasy, Jon Trickett, Yasmin Qureshi.