Croydon Council has slammed the Home Office as “thoughtless” after being out-bid by the Whitehall department for housing.
The council’s chief executive has written to the home secretary after civil servants bought the 10-year lease on accommodation for 80 families that the council had also targeted.
Jo Negrini wrote: “We are already struggling to place households locally, so for the Home Office to then procure this accommodation with no discussions with us, both undermines local authorities’ attempts to control costs and depletes our supply of local accommodation.”
