A mother of an 18-month-old boy with cerebral palsy and five other children is pleading to be rehoused to accommodate her son's disability.

Joanne Young, 35, of Wentworth Crescent, Hayes, says Hillingdon Council has told her to convert her living room into a bedroom to cater for her son Charlie's needs.

They have also refused to place ramps at the entrance of the house, even though he will soon need a wheelchair.

Mrs Young lives in a three bedroom house. Her 15-year-old daughter Jessica sleeps in the box room.

Her son Billy, 12, and Harry, nine, share another room, and her six-month-old baby, Macy, 10-year-old daughter, Amber, and Charlie share the third room with her.

Mrs Young was in Band C in the council's housing priority list, which meant she could have waited up to nine years before being rehoused.

But after the Gazette contacted the council on Friday, she received a letter to say she'd been moved up to Band B.

Mrs Young said: "I am really disgusted that it is only when you go to the paper that they do something, because even when I found out my son was blind and I contacted them they still didn't take any action to speed up the process.

"It's just sad that you have to go to this sort of extreme before something is done.

"But even now it's not clear whether I will be getting adaptations before I move and I just can't carry on living like this."

Neil Stubbings, head of housing services at Hillingdon Council, said: "Following a medical advisor's assessment based on the information provided by Mrs Young, the banding for her family's housing needs has been upgraded to band B to speed up the process.

"In the meantime, the council's children and families disability team will carry out an assessment to decide what adaptations need to be made to the home, before they are placed in suitable housing."