About us

Capital Letters was set up to help London boroughs address the housing crisis. Since then, we have grown to offer housing services to member boroughs, investors, and landlords.

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A not-for-profit company with a clear social purpose

We are a not-for-profit landlord and service provider, supporting landlords, investors and local authorities to find secure, affordable homes for Londoners.

Capital Letters is a landlord, a property management company, a lettings agency, a service provider, a housing partner and a consultant all rolled into one agile, responsive and streamlined organisation.

Our property portfolio supports our members’ needs for good quality, safe, secure, and affordable homes for families who are experiencing homelessness. Our market rent lettings agency cross-subsidises our work with our members, meaning each property that is let from us directly helps families in need.

Capital Letters has a holistic, ethical approach to partnerships, and we work with institutional investors, property developers, and organisations that understand that a home changes everything.

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Securing a future for families in London and beyond

 

Collaborative solutions for housing insecurity

Working in partnership to solve the homelessness crisis across the Capital creatively, innovatively, collaboratively and relentlessly.

Leading the way to a sustainable future

Our mission is to be the first-choice partner for the Capital, leading the way to develop long-term sustainable solutions, providing local homes and supporting homeless Londoners to be successful.

Guided by principles

Our overriding objective is that we are the “go-to” homeless accommodation service for the Capital. Our values are Collaboration, Accountability, Passion, Integrity, Trust, Agility, Learning.

Guided by experts

The Borough Representative Body (BRB) serves as the ultimate governing authority of Capital Letters. It plays a central role in leading and shaping the organisation’s direction by approving the strategic business plan and key policies. The BRB consists of one representative nominated by each member Borough, working collectively to oversee and guide our mission.

Responsibility for overseeing, scrutinising, directing, and controlling the operations of Capital Letters is entrusted to the Board of Directors. The Board plays a pivotal role in governing the organisation by providing leadership, setting strategic direction, and ensuring adherence to key policies. It also establishes and supervises control and risk management frameworks, safeguards the accuracy of financial data, and ensures that we successfully accomplish our objectives.

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Meet our board and committee members

The Board is accountable to the Borough Representative Body (BRB) and chaired by Paul Doe. The Chair and three non-executive directors (NEDs) are independent and appointed by open recruitment, and up to six NEDs are appointed from our member boroughs. The Board is supported by the chief executive, Sue Edmonds.


Paul Doe

Chair


Paul recently retired from his position as Chief Executive of Shepherds Bush Housing Group after twenty years in the role. Whilst as CEO, he was also a founder member of both Placeshapers, the national network of housing associations, and Homes for Cathy, a group supporting housing associations’ role in homelessness. Paul has also worked for the Housing Corporation and the London boroughs of Richmond upon Thames, Westminster and Hammersmith. He chaired St Mungos for five years during a ten-year period on their Board and has also been chair of Wandle Housing Association.

Paul was awarded an MBE for services to housing and homelessness in 2016. He remains interested in homelessness with positions on two homelessness charities.


Laurence Coaker

Vice-Chair


Laurence is the Director of Housing Needs and Support at Brent Council and has over 35 years’ experience of working in Housing. Previously, he led the housing needs service at Harrow Council, where he implemented the “Harrow Model” of prevention of homelessness, which was adopted nationally and helped form future government policy and legislation. He was subsequently seconded to the Department for Communities and Local Government (now MHCLG) as a specialist advisor, where he was part of the team helping local authorities to reduce their use of temporary accommodation by 50%.

Laurence has directly managed and improved front-line council services and has significant experience of partnership working at both regional and local level and has been a member of the Locata Housing Services board for over ten years.


Julia Newton

Senior Independent Director, Chair of the Remuneration and Membership Committee


Julia is a chair, non-executive director and trustee of a number of companies and charities across a range of sectors.  She co-founded marketing agency, Shine Communication, which she helped grow over ten years from a team of two to over sixty, winning many awards including for people development.

In 2009, Julia was appointed as a business advisor to the BBC One programme Village SOS, which was set up to help some of the UK’s most deprived communities.  She spent a year in a former coal‐mining village helping to raise funds and set up a sustainable social enterprise.

Currently Julia chairs GB Taekwondo, the organisation responsible for the preparation, management and performance of British athletes at the Olympic Games, Paralympic Games and at World and European Championships.  She is also founder and chair of the Rural Refugee Network, which has worked both regionally and nationally to resettle refugees from Syria in the UK.  Her areas of specialism include governance, risk management, business start–up and development, strategic leadership, people development and marketing.  Julia is passionate about supporting solutions to the crisis of homelessness and enabling people to start to rebuild their lives.


Fenella Beckman

Director


Fenella is the Director of Housing Strategy at Lewisham Council and has over 25 years’ experience of working in local government. Fenella is passionate about local government and has worked across several disciplines including housing, economic development, inward investment, innovation and service design, corporate strategy, development of strategic partnerships, corporate performance and change management. Fenella has devoted her career to narrowing the gap in outcomes for citizens and enabling them to live their best lives.

Currently Fenella is responsible for the Housing Needs and Refugee Services, Housing Policy and Partnerships, the procurement and management of Temporary Accommodation Services and the Private Rented Sector Service.


Jane West

Director, Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee


Jane is a CIPFA accountant and has been Corporate Director of Resources and Section 151 Officer at Croydon Council since March 2022. She was previously the Chief Operating Officer and s151 for the London Borough of Havering.

She has been a member of the Society of London Treasurers for most of the last 20 years and is a past President of the Society. Jane spent nine years working in local authority housing finance at both the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and at the London Borough of Lambeth.

Jane was an adviser to the Capital Ambition Board for many years and is a passionate believer in local authority shared services. For three years she stepped away from being a chief finance officer and was the managing director for oneSource, the shared corporate service for Havering and Newham councils.

Prior to her time at oneSource, Jane held a leading role in the development of the Tri-borough corporate services across the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the City of Westminster.


Imran Akram

Director


Imran has more than 25 years of experience as a consultant, equity research analyst and chartered accountant. He has significant knowledge of capital markets as well as the private housing sector. Imran founded a cement consulting firm in 2011, providing market intelligence and advisory consulting services to the global cement industry. He is treasurer at Arts4Dementia and a director of a central London apartment block.

Imran spent 12 years as an equity research analyst, mainly at Deutsche Bank where he ran European construction and building materials. He qualified as an accountant with Deloitte.


Sue Greenhill

Director


Sue is a qualified accountant and management of risk practitioner, with public, private and charitable sector experience, which also includes the housing sector.

Currently working with a G15 housing association as Head of Finance and is
responsible for finance business partnering for Central and Customer Services. Sue is a trustee of Nottinghamshire Deaf Society and has lived experience of deafness and understands the physical and mental challenges living with a disability
presents.

She is also a non-executive director at a small housing association and working with them to achieve Register Provider status.


Ozzie Clarke-Binns

Co-opted member


Ozzie has spent over 20 years as an independent advisor for various organisations, from the London 2012 Organising Committee to Business in the Community.

He specialises in people and culture transformations, having previously been Head of Innovation and Consultancy at UCL, a Trustee at the Royal National Institute of Blind
People and People Director at Otta.

Today, he leads the People team at Robin AI, a fast growing tech business. Ozzie is a Co-opted member of our Remuneration and Membership Committee.

Meet the Executive Team

The day-to-day running of the organisation is delegated to the chief executive, Sue Edmonds, who leads the Executive Team. Use the control under the picture to scroll through Executive Team members.

Get in touch

If you’re in search of a cost-effective and professional approach to property letting or are in need of a trustworthy and ethical housing partner, get in touch with our team of experts today.