Brent Council officers found 15 men inside a two-bedroom bungalow in Sudbury during an early hours raid today.

Tenants were found sleeping on mattresses strewn across the dining and living room floors, as well as on bunks and beds inside the house.

The conditions were so cramped that renters had to resort to storing clothes and shoes in furniture covered by tarpaulin in the garden.

The men paid around £50 a week to live in the house. Officers from Brent Council found damp, mould, poor ventilation and a broken soil stack.

The living conditions were unsafe, the council says. They are now looking for the landlord.

Officers also raided a second unlicensed property in Wembley.

Cllr Eleanor Southwood, cabinet member for housing and welfare reform, said: “I’m appalled at the conditions our team discovered here. There are no circumstances in which it is okay for people to have to live like this - in unsafe, squalid conditions. That’s why we expect landlords to license their properties and why we’re prepared to take the strongest possible action, including through the courts, if they fail to do so.”