A Lambeth Council staff member videoed throwing away a rough sleeper’s sleeping bag and possessions in Clapham Common was only doing so with their permission, the authority has confirmed.

A video which appeared to show a council worker putting the rough sleeper’s possessions into a rubbish bag received backlash after it was uploaded to Twitter by Apprentice star Michelle Dewberry.

Responding on Twitter, a council spokesperson said: “This man has been sleeping at this location every night for several weeks. As with all people who sleep rough in parks, we engage with them continually, but he has turned down all our offers of assistance, such as hostel accommodation.

“We’ve said to him several times that if he continues to leave his things there we’d remove them.”

Homeless charity Crisis commented the video was “disheartening and disappointing”, with Lambeth Council opposition leader Cllr Jonathan Bartley calling for an investigation into the policy.

But a Lambeth Council spokesperson today confirmed the rough sleeper had told outreach workers he no longer needed the possessions.

“We can confirm that the individual is now living in a hostel in the borough thanks to the work of our outreach team. He informed us that he took all the possessions he wanted with him, and that the items he left were no longer needed,” they explained.

 “Lambeth does a huge amount of work to help vulnerable people who find themselves at threat from homelessness or find themselves sleeping rough. We have a rough sleeping team that is out day and night providing support to those in need, to ensure that they don’t have to resort to sleeping outside.”

A spokesperson from Crisis said they had confirmed with the council that the rough sleeper was in temporary accommodation.

A Lambeth Council spokesperson said the authority would not dispose of items until they knew they were no longer needed.