Homeless miss out on properties due to Leicester cyber-attack

The full scale of the attack is still being assessed but its impact has been felt across the city

A cyber-attack at Leicester City Council has made it harder to access vital services, charities have said.

A large number of systems and phone lines have been down at the authority since 7 March.

Staff at The Bridge, which works with the homeless, said the problems meant some of the most vulnerable were struggling to get help, leading to "stress and frustration".

The council said "good progress" was being made in restoring services.

Keith Neville said already high numbers needing help had increased since the attack

The council is the latest in a number of local authorities to be hit by such incidents in recent months.

At the start of the year, three Kent councils were hit by almost simultaneous attacks, knocking systems offline.

Keith Neville, from The Bridge, said: "We are seeing increasing numbers of people coming to the centres confused because they can't access the phone lines at the council, they can't access their online housing applications.

"A lot of people come to The Bridge because they really struggle with things like making online applications and making phone calls and they need someone to sit with them and do that.

"We can't do that for them at the moment, which has increased their stress and our frustration."

Salma Ravat said people were losing out on finding homes because of the problems

Salma Ravat is CEO of One Roof Leicester, which provides temporary accommodation and support to homeless people.

She described how people were being prevented from finding new homes.

"Just this morning we were expecting a couple of residents to come down for help with bidding for a place," she added.

"In the end we had to call them up and say 'don't bother coming as the system is still down'."

The city council said: "Emergency lines for homelessness enquiries and other urgent issues have been open throughout this incident and are advertised on our website.

"Good progress is being made in restoring our systems and housing is one of our top priorities."

A criminal investigation has now begun into the incident.