It was a little disappointing to read the letters from Julie Cattell (Labour’s ideas are stolen, Letters, 21 July) and Chris Henry (Charter is too late, Letters July 17).

Tackling the city’s housing crisis is a major challenge one of my top priorities.

That’s why I’ve challenged the Government on everything from the unfair bedroom tax to increasing housing supply, putting down questions and amendments, and taking part in debates, building on the issues brought to me by constituents.

One of my first Private Members Bills was a Bill to secure better protection for tenants.

The proposals in my draft Housing Charter are practical proposals and they stem from shared experiences of hundreds of my constituents.

I have welcomed a good working relationship with Home Sweet Home and they were warmly invited to attend my Charter launch.

While I don’t believe Labour is ambitious enough in some of its recommendations, this issue is far too important to allow for unnecessary political sparring.

Contrary to Labour’s suggestion, not only do I enjoy effective cross-party working relationships, my distinctive voice within Parliament means I am able to push those parties further and hold them to account.

As I stressed at the launch that we need to work together. That means political parties, student groups, the Living Rent Campaign, People’s Assembly, Generation Rent, local authorities and organisations like Brighton Housing Trust, landlords, and tenants and Home Sweet Home all those who have experiences and skills to share.

On that note I do hope they will feed into the local authority’s Housing Strategy for 2014- 2019, which includes proposals to introduce a register of all private landlords in the city, which could benefit private tenants.

With the right political will, change can happen. We need to fight for better housing. The first step is to stop fighting one another.

Caroline Lucas MP