Anger as 'the smartest council house in Britain' is left empty

Neighbours living in the private mews in Chelsea are outraged that the property, probably Britain's smartest council house, has since been left empty.

Campaign groups have branded it an "obscene" waste with more than 50,000 people living in temporary accommodation across London.

Windows and doors at the three-storey, Georgian terrace have been boarded up to prevent squatters moving in.

Jamie Pascall, 34, had lived in the house in Billing Street since he was a teenager, taking over the tenancy when his grandmother died three years ago. He had helped to look after his grandmother, who could not read or write and who had lived in the house for about 30 years.

However, Kensington and Chelsea council claimed he and Charlene Imbert, who have one 10-year-old daughter, did not have enough children to entitle them to live in the four-bedroom house.

Mr Pascall's brother Gavin, a police community support officer, was also ordered out - he claimed he was told he was not entitled to a council house as he had a full-time job .

Only two of the brightly coloured houses in Billing Street are owned by the council and looked after by the local authority's Tenant Management Organisation. The rest are in private hands. The last to sell fetched close to £1.3million.

Residents in the mews, which is in the shadow of Stamford Bridge and blocked to general traffic by a barrier, have included actresses Britt Ekland and Susan Hampshire and pop star James Blunt.

The family fought eviction for three years but finally lost their case. In February, days before they were due to be evicted, Jamie Pascall agreed to move his family to a council-owned two-bedroom flat in a high rise in Shepherd's Bush.

Gavin Pascall told today of his family's distress at being evicted. He said: "It was very upsetting. It was a nice house with great memories. It was heartbreaking to move out. We had gone through so much fighting the eviction

"Although we were listed as legal tenants, they had said to me that in my situation because I now worked for the Met police there was no reason why I couldn't buy my own place. They were basically saying I shouldn't have got a job."

Neighbour Simon Horrocks, 42, a sales manager, said: "The council claimed there were not enough people for the house which seems very strange because it has now been boarded up for a couple of months. It is an incredible waste of money having the house lying empty. The family were proper members of the community."

Hannah Sandling, who presents ITV's 60 Minute Makover and CBBC's Clutter Nutters, and lives close by, said: "This big van came and the family were ushered out and the doors and windows blocked up. It all happened in about an hour. It's a great shame because they were a lovely family. It's a waste of a house and it looks ugly on the street."

Mark Wallace, campaigns director for the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: "It is obscene for the council to leave a huge, costly house standing empty when there are people crying out for places on the social housing list. It is another sign that the council do not seem to be on top of managing their resources properly."

There are 991 people in temporary accommodation in Kensington and Chelsea and 6,794 people on the council house waiting list. Across London there are 53,870 people in temporary accommodation.

A spokesman for the TMO said: "The family was too small for the size of the house. We boarded the house up to prevent squatters while we do repairs. We are hopeful it will be ready in a few weeks for new tenants."