Durham MP Roberta Blackman-Woods is the new Labour shadow housing minister, the party has announced.

Professor Blackman-Woods, who comes from Northern Ireland, has been in Parliament since 2005 after being selected as candidate on an all-women list.

She is a sociologist with an interest in housing, and her CV includes being welfare rights officer at Newcastle City Council, a job she had before she became a university lecturer.

Her last role in Parliament was as shadow planning minister.

As new shadow housing minister she takes over from Emma Reynolds and will have to look at some of Labour’s more controversial manifesto policies for housing, including the introduction of rent controls, abolition of letting agent fees and the imposition of a mansion tax.