A housing shortage is in danger of condemning two little sisters to life in wheelchairs.

Twins Orlanda and Marissa Tasker have been waiting for a council to find them a more suitable home since their birth four and a half years ago.

The girls have cerebral palsy and are confined to wheelchairs but their mother has been told they may be able to learn to walk unaided with the help of specialist aids bought with money raised by well-wishers.

But their tiny privately-rented home in Scarborough Road, Brighton, is so cramped there is not enough room for the girls to use the equipment.

Leading doctors now warn they may lose any chance of walking.

The sisters, together with their 11-year-old brother and mother Sharon, have been on Brighton and Hove City Council's waiting list to be housed for almost five years.

Last January, the council told The Argus they were "acutely aware" of the urgency of the family's housing need and said they were top of the priority list for three-bedroom, wheelchair-accessible accommodation. They are still waiting.

Miss Tasker said: "The doctors always told me if I could get the girls up walking using these aids by the time they were three, they would have some chance of walking unaided.

"I was told one of my daughters would have a 90 per cent chance. The more they can be on their feet and build up their leg muscles the better for them.

"But because there is no space for them to use the walking aids in the house, their development has been held back. They're now looking at being full-time in a wheelchair for the rest of their lives."

In the last two years, Miss Tasker has been invited to view just five properties.

She said: "One had ten steps up to the door, the next had 20 steps, the third was a tiny terraced house even smaller than we have now. The fourth could not be accessed by the big ambulance bus that takes the girls to Chailey Heritage School.

"The last house had seven steps but I said I was happy to move in if it could be adapted. They said that would be too expensive."

Miss Tasker sleeps in the front room surrounded by her daughters' medical equipment, two of everything - powered wheelchairs, manual wheelchairs, specialist dinner chairs, potty chairs, standing frames and walking frames.

Her private landlord has indicated he wants his house back to carry out repairs.

Miss Tasker said: "The last thing we want is to be put in a B&B. We have been asked about moving to Wales or the North but that would mean losing all our equipment, some of which we had to wait nine months to a year for in the first place."

Miss Tasker recently spotted a empty house that looked like a potential solution in Newick Road.

She said: "They keep telling me there is a shortage but in that road and the next there are about seven houses boarded up and lying empty."

The council said it was working with housing associations to increase the supply of family-sized, adapted mobility properties, of which there is a shortage.

A spokeswoman said: "We've noted Miss Tasker's query about Newark Road. This house requires major structural works and underpinning and is therefore not available to let as permanent accommodation at the moment.

"We will genuinely continue to do everything we can to house this family."