Woman waited months to be housed by Croydon Council

A London council which left a mother and her three young children without a suitable home for more than 10 months has been criticised by an ombudsman.

Councils are required to complete inquiries about homeless cases within 33 working days.

But it took Croydon Council more than five months to deal with the case, the Local Government Ombudsman found.

Croydon Council said it had apologised to the woman, who does not want to be identified, and has agreed to pay compensation.