"Unprecedented" pressures on social housing would make it impossible to house refugees from war-torn Syria and Iraq, Redbridge council has said.  

Deputy leader councillor Wes Streeting has responded to calls by a Catholic church to re-settle 50 refugees in the borough by saying the borough simply does not have the space or resources. 

St Thomas of Canterbury church in High Road, Woodford Green, submitted a petition of over 100 signatures to cabinet last month. 

Members asked the council to help give refugees living in camps in bordering Turkey and Jordan a new start in life through a re-settling programme funded in the first year by the European Commission.  

Cllr Streeting, said: "We have huge sympathy for the unimaginable plight of Syrian refugees and believe the government should do more to help, but the current pressures on our local housing service are unprecedented.

"We have 2,145 households in temporary accommodation and over 700 of these have been placed outside the borough due to local housing pressures.

"Chronic under-investment under the Tories means we have the third lowest stock of social housing in London, with over 7,500 people on the housing list.

"We continue to meet our statutory duty to refugees placed in Redbridge, but we’re not in a position to volunteer to take 50 Syrian families." 

The UK government has been criticised by aid and relief charities for its "woefully inadequate" attempt to re-settle Syrian refugees, as stated in a joint letter addressed to David Cameron in November. 

Since the uprising in 2011, over 100,000 people have been killed and 2.3 million displaced, with less than 100 Syrians being accepted in Britain. 

The first of these refugees arrived in March last year.