A landlord has helped a homeless family of four to get back on their feet by throwing open the doors to his £2,000 a month Camden flat to them for free.

Laura Gregory, 25, has spent the past 30 months sleeping on friends’ sofas as she searched for a home for her, her eight-year-old twin boys Harry and Tommy Smith, and daughter Lacey Smith, six, after struggling to pay rent on her housing association property in Southwark.

As reported in the Ham&High property firm boss Laurence Lameche offered his vacant two bedroom flat in Agar Grove and put out an appeal on social media to find a family, which was seen by TV psychic Sally Cudmore who then put him in touch with Ms Gregory.

The mum-of-three said: “The children were very excited. They haven’t had their own space for a while as we’ve been staying with family and friends. They’ve moved around so much with nothing stable. It was a wonderful Christmas and now we’ve been told we don’t have to leave straight away so can keep looking.”

Mr Lameche, forced to sleep in his car when he first moved to London in 1997 because he couldn’t afford to pay the deposit on a rented flat, said the idea struck him during a Phil Collins concert in November.

“One of his songs is ‘Another Day In Paradise’. I really listened to the words; ‘She calls out to the man on the street, Sir, can you help me? It’s cold and I’ve nowhere to sleep’ and it made me think about homelessness.”

On making the offer Mr Lameche was inundated with pleas with people with dreams of living in London contacting him from around the world.

“It was quite challenging working out who was genuine or not. I went on gut feeling and recommendation,” he said.

The London Property Buyers boss was keen to point out his support won’t end after one or two weeks.

“I’m going to do everything I can to help her,” and called on fellow landlords to follow his example. He has written a book, available on Amazon, called ‘How I Bought 3 London Properties for a Football Ticket’ to pass on his wisdom.