A housing trust has apologised for leaving a mother homeless and separated from her young son for seven weeks.

Single mum Maureen Ingleson, 47, has been sleeping on the floor and been forced to live apart from her eight-year-old son since becoming homeless at the beginning of June.

Today Bradford MP Marsha Singh condemned the delay in processing her housing application.

He said: "Leaving somebody homeless for seven weeks is not good at all and I am very disappointed they have been unable to help so far.

"I have already sent letters representing her and am happy to continue to help."

The mother-of-four was evicted from her rented home, where she lived with two of her children aged eight and 11, on June 8.

But she could not secure an appointment for housing advice until June 24.

She said: "They offered me a hostel but I have been in one before and there are all sorts of people living there.

"I didn't want my children anywhere near that."

She stayed with her children's grandmother at her one-bedroom bungalow in Allerton.

But with nowhere for her son to sleep, Ms Ingleson had no choice but to send him to stay with a family friend in Halifax.

She said: "It is really hard for him. He is so heartbroken and keeps asking when he can come home but there just isn't room here.

"Two of us share the living room - I sleep on the floor and my daughter has the sofa.

"I keep telling him it won't be for long but he is so upset and he has had to change schools. It just isn't on."

Ms Ingleson is now awaiting a decision from Bradford Community Housing Trust, which aims to deal with homelessness cases within 33 days, to confirm the status of her application.

In the meantime she must join hundreds of other home-seekers by taking part in a bidding system for available properties across the district.

She said: "I just don't seem to be getting anywhere and nobody seems to be helping."

Pam Bennett, head of housing access and advice for the BCHT Group, said: "We must apologise to this lady for not seeing her as soon as we would have liked, due to the large number of applicants for our homeless advice service.

"We have recently revamped our appointments system to deal with this and hope to make a decision for this lady soon."

A spokesman for the Trust added: "There are currently 270 homeless applications being processed across the Bradford district.

"We try to meet government targets and last year achieved that target in 97 per cent of cases.

"However, sometimes applications can take longer than others but we hope to deal with this lady's case within the 33 day target."