LABOUR’S housing spokesman has called a councillor’s attitude "disgraceful" after he told a mum struggling to pay a hefty rent increase on her family home to “live in the real world”.

Sharada Osman emailed Councillor Brian Coleman for “help and guidance” after her private landlord hiked up the rent for her two-bedroom maisonette from £950 to £1,100.

The unemployed 39-year-old has lived in Woodside Park Road, North Finchley, for six years with her six-year-old son. She has applied for local housing allowance but says it will not be enough to cover the rent.

Councillor Ross Houston, Labour's housing spokesman said: “Ms Osman’s case echoes what we have been saying for some time, and what the council themselves now acknowledge – that ordinary people can no longer afford private rents due to the Government’s policies to scrap affordable housing schemes and cap local housing allowance."

However, when Ms Osman explained her situation in an email to Cllr Coleman, he replied wishing her well in her return to employment and suggested she turn to the private sector for housing because there will never be enough council houses available.

Ms Osman replied calling his statement thoughtless and lacking in empathy to which he responded: “Lack of empathy?????? Councillors simply cannot conjure housing out of thin air and the private sector is your only option. That is a fact.

“I am afraid you have to live in the real world where the country has no money and residents will have to deal with their own issues rather than expecting ‘the system’ to sort their lives out. This correspondence is now closed.”

Cllr Houston said: "Brian Coleman’s policy of directing everyone to the private rented sector is just not sustainable, and frankly his attitude to those people, like Ms Osman, who have been affected by this is disgraceful.”

According to research published by housing campaign Shelter, private sector rents in Barnet are “extremely unaffordable” for ordinary working families with the average private sector rent in Barnet at 56 per cent of average take home pay.

Shelter’s report shows that Barnet’s average private sector monthly rent is £1,202 (based on a two-bedroom property), putting it in the top 15 most expensive London boroughs for private sector rent.

Cllr Houston added: “These housing policies are going to cause misery for more and more people, and not just those on housing benefit, but those in work and on low incomes – it’s disastrous for ordinary hard-working people.”