Bernadette Minafra has made a new life for herself in Swansea. With a husband, three children and another baby on the way the 35-year-old is living in a bigger house which is costing less to run.

Her new life comes courtesy of Croydon Council's Fresh Start scheme, where tenants are given help to relocate elsewhere in the UK in exchange for their tenancy.

It is just one initiative the council is using to tackle a housing crisis, described as "desperate" by officials.

Bernadette said: "We were housing association tenants living in Broughton Road in Thornton Heath and waited for years to get a council place but the demand is so high.

"We found out about the Fresh Start programme in 2002 and a year later we moved to Swansea. It's a much better quality of life here. We've got a bigger house and our cost of living has gone down. Our electricity bills alone went from £30 a week to about £7. We would never have been able to have a fourth child had we not moved to Swansea."

The council scheme does not cover transfers to other parts of London, the Home Counties or the south east and west of England because of the huge demand for accommodation, with the majority of openings arising in the Midlands and north.

Projects to build new housing and free up unused space in existing council properties are underway in Croydon.

Croydon will receive £3.2million towards new housing after it successfully bid for a share of a £20million pot offered by the mayor of London to boroughs hit hardest by overcrowding.

The money will help build 34 new family-sized homes at various sites across the borough. They will be offered to overcrowded households on the housing and transfer waiting lists.

The total cost of the project is £6.5million with the council and other sources funding the difference.

A cash for spare rooms' scheme is also operating where council tenants could earn up to £8,000 in cash incentives just by giving up unused bedrooms for a smaller property.

In a bid to ease the housing shortage, tenants could be given £2,000 by Croydon Council for every room they give up if they agree to downsize and let properties go to larger families.

Those who agree are automatically given priority status on the authority's housing list and will also have their removal costs paid.

Morie Gwilliam's family benefited from this scheme. The 32-year-old pregnant mum-of-three was able to move from cramped conditions to a larger property in Brierley, New Addington, in July.

She said: "We've been council tenants for five or six years. We were living in private rented accommodation and the landlord wanted to sell so we had to get out. We became council tenants for financial reasons. My husband is self-employed but he is also disabled.

"We've also lived in bed and breakfast. It wasn't for very long - only two weeks - but it wasn't very nice.

"There were five of us living in a three-bedroom house but it was too small. Now we have another child on the way so we needed the room. We eventually moved to another three-bedroom house in July and it's really nice."

The scheme raised questions over whether council tenants should profit from properties they do not own. However, council tenants have the legal right to remain in their homes, regardless of whether the number of occupants has reduced, so Croydon Council sees cash incentives as a necessary way of persuading tenants to free up space.

The council also said the cost of paying tenants for spare rooms is cheaper than keeping families in private, rented accommodation.

A spokesman for the town hall said: "The council decides how best to manage and maximise the use of its housing stock given the huge demand for accommodation. Funding for this project comes through revenue raised through housing and is not footed by private homeowners.

"Special transfer payments went up last year under the previous administration from £1,500 to £2,000 per room. We handled 51 applicants last year and 38 to date this year."

Last month, the Greater London Authority gave Croydon Council an additional £325,000 for the spare room' cash incentive scheme.