A baby has to sleep in a child's car seat because there is no room for a cot in the loft where her mother lives while she waits for a home.

Laura Walsh, 17, fears eight-month-old daughter Ellie's health is suffering because of cold and cramped conditions in an uninsulated roof space.

Laura says she has been waiting for a property from North Bradford Community Housing Trust for ten months. Meanwhile, she and boyfriend Damian Asquith live in his mother's loft in Swain House, Bradford.

She said a health visitor from Idle Medical Centre had told her she needed to be relocated urgently and had written to the housing trust.

Laura said: "The letter was sent a month ago but they have done nothing about it.

"There is only a couple of metres of space - there is just room for a bed and a few teddies for Ellie.

"We cannot even put a cot in here so Ellie sleeps in a car seat but we have been told that this could damage her spine."

There is no room for Laura, Damian and Ellie downstairs in his mother's three-bedroom house because she has three other children and is expecting her fifth child. And Laura cannot return to her family home in Bradford because, she says, her sister has also given birth and there is no room there either.

Laura and Damian were offered a housing trust flat in Thorpe Edge last year which they turned down because they said it was not fit to live in. Now Laura fears she has dropped to the bottom of a waiting list and her daughter's health will continue to suffer.

She said: "It is freezing up here. Damian is going to the doctor's next week because of the damp. The roof has no insulation so it gets really cold. Living in a loft is getting us down; we are both really depressed by it."

Chris Hodgson, head of operations for North Bradford Community Housing Trust, said: "A previous refusal of a suitable offer of accommodation has resulted in withdrawal of Laura's priority status.

"This is normal procedure. Laura and her family can still bid for available properties on our homehunter system.

"We accept that the present accommodation is unsuitable and will endeavour to assist the family if at all possible. We will contact them very shortly to discuss possible rehousing options."