Overview
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.
Speak to our team
WHAT WE STAND FOR
Securing a future for families in London and beyond
Our vision
Collaborative solutions for housing insecurity
Working in partnership to solve the homelessness crisis across the Capital creatively, innovatively, collaboratively and relentlessly.
Our mission
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.
Our Values
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.
OUR GOVERNANCE
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.
Find out more
OUR BOARD
Meet our board and committee members
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 Head of Housing Needs 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 Head of Housing Services 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.
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 Head of Housing Needs 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 Head of Housing Services 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.
OUR TEAM
Meet the Executive Team
Sue Edmonds
Chief executive
Sue joined Capital Letters in June 2019 as its first CEO and led the establishment of the company from a standing start. Sue’s career in housing is extensive and has covered a range of roles - executive & non-executive - across the breadth of the sector including local government, housing associations, commercial companies and group structures. She is a Non-Executive Director of Westward Housing Group and a Chartered Member (CIHCM) of the Chartered Institute of Housing. Over the course of her career she has led business change, setting up and developing new organisations and services, establishing and running successful businesses (both social purpose and commercial) including setting strategic direction, governance and control frameworks, developing and transforming culture. Her responsibilities have encompassed a range of activities at a strategic level across different types of businesses: governance, probity, risk, commercial activities, housing management, asset management and investment, performance management, PR and communications, IT and HR. Over the past five years, Sue has developed unique insight into the PRS market in London, landlord sentiment and the systemic issues facing all local authorities in managing their homelessness responsibilities.
Elizabeth Harper
Director of operations
Elizabeth’s career in the voluntary and charitable sector has had a particular focus on homelessness and supported housing in London and the South. Having held a range of roles, including responsibility for quality assurance, safeguarding, new business development, user involvement, volunteering and best practice, she has spent the last decade as an Operational Director working collaboratively with Local Authorities to develop and deliver successful services. She has also worked with organisations internationally to develop their outcomes measurement practice and advise on homelessness policy implementation. She brings a personal and professional commitment to making a positive difference to homeless people.
Andrew Ireland
Director of Business Development
Andrew joined Capital Letters in February 2024. After two decades in investment and corporate banking, Andrew transitioned to local government to drive commercial innovation, particularly in using institutional capital to support the provision of affordable housing delivery. With extensive experience in financing across various sectors and asset classes through the capital stack, Andrew has held multiple executive roles and board positions. As a Chartered Certified Accountant (FCCA), he advocates for data-driven strategic decision-making and is deeply committed to impact investing and creating social value.
Pedro Dalton
Director of Finance
Pedro is a qualified Chartered Accountant (ACA) who joined Capital Letters as the Director of Finance in May 2024. He brings extensive experience as a senior finance executive in both public and private sector organisations. Before joining Capital Letters, Pedro held key positions at various organisations, including Mount Green and Cottsway Housing Associations, as well as a scale-up SME focusing on attracting institutional investment into single-family rental housing. In addition, Pedro currently serves as a Board Member of Tower Hamlets Community Housing.
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.