Barnet Council has paid £10,000 in compensation after a mum and her five children were housed in a cramped two-bed flat for more than four years.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) said the family suffered “avoidable stress and anxiety” because mistakes and delays by the council meant they were left in “unsuitable” temporary accommodation that was “much too small for their needs”.

A report by the ombudsman, an independent body that investigates complaints against councils, reveals it took the council’s housing arm Barnet Homes 15 months to accept the family was overcrowded, delayed completing a review and failed to put them in a higher-priority housing band.

Barnet Homes said it had apologised and implemented the ombudsman’s recommendations.

The ombudsman’s report reveals that the mum, identified only as Ms X, was given a two-bedroom flat by the council in 2003 after she became homeless. At the time, she had three children.

But in March 2018, after having two more children, she told the council their temporary accommodation was “extremely overcrowded”, and this was affecting her and her family’s health and wellbeing. Despite providing all of the relevant information about her children by May, the ombudsman found that it took the council a further 15 months to accept she was statutorily overcrowded.

The council offered Ms X a private tenancy in July 2020. But the ombudsman’s report says the letter was “confusing”, and she refused the offer because she would not be able to afford the rent. The authority then wrote to her in August, telling her that it was ending its main duty to her because she had refused a suitable offer.

The following month, Ms X appealed with the help of a solicitor, and the council’s decision was eventually overturned. But she had to wait until November 2021 for the council to complete its review – well beyond the 56-day legal deadline. Meanwhile, throughout this period, the council was not looking for suitable temporary accommodation for the family.

In addition, the ombudsman found that the council’s failure to put Ms X into a higher-priority housing banding after she cleared rent arrears in July 2020 meant she missed out on at least two properties.

The ombudsman said the failure to find the family suitable accommodation meant they “continue to live in a property much too small for their needs”. One of the children is at a “critical point in her education” and needs to study for exams, and the lack of space had “caused avoidable stress and anxiety to all the family”.

The ombudsman rejected the council’s initial offer to pay £3,000 in compensation for the time the family spent in unsuitable housing and upped the amount to £10,000. It told the council to pay a further £500 for delays in completing the review and to offer Ms X the next available four-bedroom property that meets her needs.

A Barnet Homes spokesperson said: “Barnet Homes has implemented the recommendations of the LGSCO, which included a further apology to Ms X. Ms X was adequately housed when she moved into her current two-bedroom property but has since had further children which means she now requires a four-bedroom home. Ms X will be offered the next four-bedroom property that becomes available.

“This case highlights the acute challenges that London local authorities face in accommodating large households because there are very limited four-bedroom properties available either within the social housing stock, or that are affordable within the private rented sector.

“Based on the LGSCO’s annual report for 2021/22, Barnet generally compares very favourably regarding housing considering its population, receiving fewer housing complaints than 18 other London boroughs, and housing representing a lower percentage of the local authority’s complaints than 26 other London boroughs.

“We complete a ‘lessons learnt’ review for all LGSCO complaints where any failure has been found, and we are continuing to pursue all available options to increase the supply of larger properties via our affordable housing acquisition and new-build programmes.”