£6,300 council payout to homeless Luton family who spent more than a year in hotel and hostel
Luton council must say sorry and pay £6,300 to a mother who had to spend too long in hotel and hostel accommodation with her children after they became homeless.
Her complaint against Luton Borough Council was upheld by a local government watchdog, which decided that living in unsuitable housing conditions caused an injustice.
After she and her children became homeless in August 2024, the council moved the family to a hotel, where they remained for more than 10 months, according to a report by a local government and social care ombudsman.
They were then moved to a hostel where they lived for around three months, said the report.
“LBC later sought to place the family in a private rented property, which she also described as unsuitable. She’d identified another private rented property, located outside the borough.
“She said living in the hotel and hostel accommodation had negative impacts on both her own physical and mental health and that of her children. Previously, she’d shared a house with her parents, but they were no longer able to accommodate her family.
“LBC offered hostel accommodation to her In June 2025, with three interconnected rooms on the first floor of the council-owned building. She moved into the hostel, but asked for a review of its suitability because it was too small, in poor condition and had an infestation of bedbugs.
“The council offered her the tenancy of a privately rented house in its area in August 2025, saying this would end the full housing duty it owed her. LBC defended the condition of the hostel accommodation and said it had completed a treatment for bedbugs.”
She also challenged the suitability of the private rented accommodation offered to her, explained the report. “She was unhappy the council hadn’t helped about renting a property outside the borough before making its offer.
“LBC said it considered she’d ‘not secured’ the property and “it didn’t have a duty to support her with this”. She moved out of the hostel accommodation in September 2025 and returned to her parents, having refused the council’s accommodation offer.
“She asked to escalate her complaint, saying LBC hadn’t properly addressed her concerns. In its final reply, sent in early September 2025, the council said there was ‘no better’ accommodation available at the time because of the pressure on its housing service.
“LBC said it would waive service charges for a month (equivalent to around £160) for the time she was without hot water. I accepted the council only placed her in the hotel, as it had nothing else available.”
Service failure contributed heavily to why she lived in the hotel for around 38 weeks longer than she might have expected, added the report. “I found fault with LBC moving her to the hostel.
“I noted her time there was made worse by the lack of hot water, but the council applied a satisfactory remedy for this. I didn’t uphold the complaint about support with private rented accommodation, which was still tenanted.
“The council agreed to apologise and make a symbolic payment of £6,300 to her. Of this, £5,700 is for the time LBC placed her in a hotel and the remainder for when living in the hostel.”