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A tiny Islington flat which highlighted the scale of London's housing crisis has been taken off the market after council workers stepped in.

Inspectors from Islington council imposed an order ruling that the flat, in which the bed appears to be just inches from a cooking hob, is too small for legal requirements.

The intervention comes days after it was let out for almost £750 per month, despite only being on the market for 16 hours.

Islington's housing chief councillor, James Murray, told the Guardian: "The problem is that people are getting squeezed by high private rent prices and the lack of affordable housing, so you get landlords who are in a position to exploit people."

He said planning permission was granted in the mid-1990s to use the block as student accommodation, but there had been a breach of rules when what were bedrooms had been converted into self-contained flats.

He added that this problem was widespread in Islington.

Landlord Andrew Panayi, 67, marketed the flat as a "modern studio apartment", and claimed pictures used by letting agents Relocate Me "didn't do justice" to it.

Mr Panayi insisted all 40 flats in the block, off Caledonian Road, did have planning permission.

“The property does have planning. It’s been checked several times by the environmental health and the planning department. We have not subdivided units.”

He added: “They didn’t photograph the bathroom or the [communal] roof terrace.”