Neighbours' fury over recent deliveries of new carpets and televisions

Builders did £100,000 renovations in 2011, creating two new bedrooms

A family of Somali benefits claimants living in a £2million home courtesy of the taxpayer admitted they couldn’t believe their luck yesterday.

To the anger of neighbours, the family of ten are allowed to live in a six-bedroom end-of-terrace Georgian townhouse in one of London’s most fashionable areas, populated by high-flying lawyers and stockbrokers.

The family use housing benefits to pay a heavily discounted rent for the four-storey house in Islington – close to Tony Blair’s former home – which boasts a variety of period features, including chandeliers and wood flooring.

Luxury: The plush £2million townhouse in London that has been given to a Somalian family of 10 who are living on benefits

Lucky: Two of the occupants seen leaving the £2m home. According to neighbours new carpets and televisions were delivered recently and many of people living there have cars

The house also has balconies and a large back garden, while almost £100,000 was spent on extensive renovations last year to create two extra bedrooms for the family.

The family are understood to pay the council just over £1,000 a month in rent, yet if the property were rented on the private market it could command up to £6,000 a month.

As the house is owned by the council, which has set an artificially low rent, the case is not covered by the Coalition’s benefit reforms, which are designed to stop large families claiming huge sums in benefits to live in mansions far beyond the reach of most hard-working taxpayers.

Yesterday two men from the Somali family were seen leaving the house and driving away in a new black Vauxhall car.

Neighbours said some of the family were believed to work as taxi drivers and private chauffeurs.

Refit: The stunning Georgian townhouse, in one of Islington's most desirable streets, underwent £100,000 worth of renovations in 2011, including creating two new bedrooms.

A woman living in the house said: ‘I don’t know how we got the house. We were lucky.’

A fellow inhabitant, Mohamed, 55, said: ‘We were on the council waiting list. All adults in the home are on housing benefit and income support.

‘There are ten of us. We have a nice garden and there’s wood flooring throughout.

‘We are lucky, but it’s a very big family. I had been in temporary housing for years before this. We are good people.’

A woman at the house yesterday

However, there is less acceptance from some neighbours.

A 72-year-old resident called Harry said: ‘It’s just not fair. There are families who are stuck in tiny flats and this family gets luxury.

‘Most people in the country couldn’t afford such a house. It seems wrong, particularly when families are struggling during this recession.

‘Then we see new carpets and TVs being brought in. Where’s the fairness in that?

‘I don’t think there’s another country in the world where you would be handed a £2million house if you turned up.’

Another resident said she thought the council should be forced to sell such prime properties and spend the money on social housing.

It is unclear when the Somali family, who have been living in the house for about a year, came to the UK and whether they arrived as asylum seekers. The precise breakdown of the benefits they receive is not known.

Robert Oxley, of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said the case showed why benefit reform was ‘necessary – to ensure that there is a safety-net for the poorest and most vulnerable, while protecting taxpayers against paying for big, expensive houses’.

A spokesman for Islington Council said: ‘Islington has a desperate shortage of affordable homes and is a high-value area. This council home has been owned by the council for many years and is currently let to an Islington family who were in great housing need.’