A group of young mothers has led a protest against the lack of affordable council housing in one of the boroughs that hosted the London Olympics.

Campaign group Focus E15 complained that an estate in Stratford was almost empty while growing numbers of local people could not afford to buy or rent a house.

The mothers said local people were facing homelessness and displacement due to the lack of affordable and social housing in the city. They called for "social housing, not social cleansing".

The group said the council estate in Stratford, which overlooks the Olympic Village, has 2,000 empty council homes, and criticised Newham council for selling off land to a private developer.

A Newham Council spokesperson said: "The Carpenters Estate has been earmarked for redevelopment since 2010 as refurbishment of the three main tower blocks would have been prohibitively expensive for both the council and leaseholders and would not have secured the long-term future of the estate.

"We want to use the empty homes on the Carpenters Estate as temporary accommodation to help alleviate housing pressure in Newham and we are already using a number of empty properties to do so.

"Following a successful scheme in Canning Town, we have looked at how we can replicate this to include a further 386 properties on the estate to provide temporary homes.

"Last year, we invited the Carpenters Tenants Management Organisation (CTMO) to discuss the possibility of introducing this scheme which would benefit residents and business on the estate and the CTMO.

"Regrettably, rather than constructively engaging with us, they sent a letter from their solicitors instructing us not to proceed.

"Newham is facing an acute housing crisis with a shortage of homes and more than 15,000 households on the council waiting list and using these properties would have help."