Lynette Marshall lives with her partner Sean Mulgrew and her three daughters in a council flat in Murcott Road West.

The 27-year-old sleeps her two older daughters in the second bedroom while 18-month-old Charlotte has to make do with a cupboard at the end of a corridor where the gas meter and the fuse box are stored.

Miss Marshall, who has lived in the property for seven years, said: "It is dangerous. If there was ever a leak or anything there are a lot of wires and fuses in there and there would be a bang.

"She can't stay in with us as she has got to the age where she wakes up at the slightest sound and can't go back to sleep."

The mother is now pregnant with her fourth child and struggles to lift the pushchair up the stairs to her home.

She said: "It is difficult and the older children argue a lot because they do not have room to play. If they go into the communal gardens they get moaned at by neighbours for being too noisy."

The family does not have enough points to move under Warwick District Council's HomeChoice housing scheme, although their total will rise to 12 once the new baby arrives in the summer.

Miss Marshall added: "The council is saying that I can use my living room as a sleeping area but where are my children supposed to eat? There are three and four-bedroomed houses being let to single parents with one child. What's the sense in that?

"The fourth baby was planned but it wasn't planned as quickly as it happened. It will not make life any easier for me in the meantime but I am not the only one in this block to have three children in a two-bedroomed flat.

"We were hoping we would have been moved by now. It's pretty depressing and causes lots of arguments."

District council housing officer Alison Simmons explained that properties available under the points system are advertised fortnightly and offered to applicants at the top of the list once the bidding closes.

She said: "Where a household is deemed 'statutorily overcrowded' they may be given priority for a move.

"If the applicant is deemed statutorily overcrowded and is an existing council tenant they would not necessarily be placed into Band 1 on HomeChoice as they may be considered for a management move.

"This may occur when an existing tenant has to be moved due to extenuating circumstances."