A city council has partially rejected a government watchdog’s recommendation to pay a mother who became homeless after fleeing domestic abuse.

The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman says the woman was not given the right support when she asked Leicester City Council for help.

She ran away from home with her children and was placed in an intermediate bed and breakfast before being sent to a shelter that offers self-contained accommodation.

The city council says it will pay the woman £500 in compensation but will not accept a further £1,300 recommended by the watchdog because it is based on laws from more than 20 years ago that “do not take into account the national crisis of housing. “.

The ombudsman said the mother contacted the council “repeatedly” because she believed the shelter was adversely affecting her children’s health and was too far from her support network, but the authority did not respond.

Under British law, families should only be placed in bed and breakfast as a last resort for no more than six weeks.

However, this family was placed in a B&B, split into two rooms, for 19 weeks after moving out of the shelter.

The ombudsman said: “(The city council) did not tell her that she had accepted her primary housing obligation to her family and that her right to challenge through the courts the appropriateness of the accommodation provided.”

The family were eventually offered a one-bedroom property and, despite the council admitting it was not suitable, did not tell the mother she could appeal, the ombudsman said.

It recommended that the city council apologize to the mother and pay her £500 for the distress caused by failing to respond to her concerns about the adequacy of the shelter’s accommodation.

The council was also advised to pay the family £1,300 for spending 13 weeks longer than they should have in the hostel and a further £150 for each month they stay in temporary accommodation” inappropriate”.

Ms Amerdeep Somal, Ombudsman for Local Government and Social Care, says the city council does not “accept the seriousness of the injustice to this family”.

She added: “Whilst I acknowledge the work that Leicester City Council has already done to improve its support for homeless people in the city and its acceptance of the service improvements I have recommended, I am disappointed by its reluctance to fully admit what went wrong. in this case.”

The city council says making all the recommended payments would be “disastrous” for local authorities.

It declared a housing crisis in November 2022 and says it currently spends around £16m a year on homelessness services.

The authority says the lack of suitable accommodation is “outside its control”, despite efforts to provide more affordable housing, and legislation limiting B&B accommodation to six weeks is more than 20 years old.

Elly Cutkelvin, the city’s deputy mayor for housing, said: “Five years ago we had no families living in hostels in Leicester.

“This year – due to failures by successive governments to tackle the housing crisis by building more new homes – we have 171 in hostels and another 365 in other temporary accommodation, including hotels and self-catering apartments.

“I understand how painful this must be and the impact it will have on everyday life.”

Ms Cutkelvin said a precedent set by the ombudsman’s full recommendation would see the council pay £220,000, which was “money we just don’t have”.

“We accept that there were some failings in our service in this case,” she added.

“We are sorry for this and have apologized to the family concerned.

“Staff training and recruitment is ongoing to ensure these failures do not happen again.”