A TELEVISION show in which a rich businessman donated £150,000 to provide emergency accommodation for Haringey’s homeless has left critics wondering if the council is doing enough.

Channel 4 show Secret Millionaire, which aired on Sunday, saw Kevin Morley, former managing director of car firm Rover, going undercover after being appalled by a feature in the Haringey Independent which revealed the shocking numbers of people living in temporary accommodation.

Mr Morley spent time with case workers from homeless charity Caris, based in St Ann’s Church Hall, who provide support to those living in unsuitable conditions which can be damp, overcrowded and flea-infested — with no assurance when a permanent home will be found.

Film crews also showed the fairy godfather stumbling across a used syringe.

The millionaire said: "I had no idea families lived in these conditions."

Mr Morley gave a cheque of £150,000 to Caris to help it build a comfortable and homely hostel for those in need of emergency accommodation after finding that council provision was not always appropriate.

One single father who featured on the show said he and his daughter were placed in a crowded hostel which he claimed also housed a sex offender. He also donated an extra £10,000 towards home improvements for single father Neil who, along with his three three children, had just moved into his first permanent home after years of living in limbo.

Robert Gorrie, leader of Haringey Liberal Democrats, said: "Haringey Council should be ashamed that after 40 years of Labour rule Northumberland Park is still one of the most deprived parts of the borough, reliant on the charity of a secret millionaire rather than support, guidance and funding of the local authority."

He added: "It was a small example of the truly inspirational efforts of Haringey’s residents and voluntary organisations to help people in need."

When the feature was published in 2007, up to 5,000 people were homeless. A year-and-a-half later that figure has dropped to 4,695 — with a further 139 applications for housing made between October and December 2008.

John Bevan, cabinet member for housing, attacked tv producers for the "gross misrepresentation" of Northumberland Park and stressed the council was on target to slash homelessness by 2010 and revealed the council had recently been awarded an extra £7.5million to be spent improving housing.

Mr Bevan said: "In the past, conditions in some of our properties have not been acceptable — I admit that. But we are working hard to improve things. There is stacks of work to be done but we are on track.

"Many people in Haringey are on low-incomes and are unable to afford their own homes. It’s a fact of life. But Northumberland Park is not the dark, menacing dump the show made it out to be."

He called for a London-wide initiative that would allow those on waiting lists to move into the thousands of homes being built in areas like Thamesmead, in South London.

Mr Bevan added Haringey lacked the space for the amount of new homes needed to ease the housing crisis.

Gloria Saffrey-Powell, Caris director, who worked with the council on their homelessness strategy, welcomed the funding.

She said: "We do this job because we are passionate about it and for no other reason.

"When you’re so involved it is easy to forget the real impact you are having on people lives. For someone to come in, see what we do and be so moved by it was fantastic. It really meant so much."