I wasnt sure where to put this. But does anyone know if there is a legal age that a child has to have his own room. My brother and his wife is in a one bedroomed flat and they have a 3 year old son who is still sharing their bedroom. The council wont give them a bigger place and their flat is tiny, its ridiculous.

I was told when i was applying for houses that..up until the babies 1 they can share the same room but over one you should be able to get a 2bed. I've been lucky enough to always get 2 bedrooms

We were also in a top floor one bedroomed flat until Caitlin was 3, it was ridiculous, people kept leapfrogging us in the council list. In the end we only got our 2 bed house because we went in nearly every day for about 2 weeks to complain about the lack of space, we complained about everything we could think about: antisocial neighbours, broken glass left outside from the teenage neighbours, pulling pram up the stairs causing injuries, etc. If we hadn't done that we'd have been waiting a lot longer!

I also enquired about the legal age for a child sharing a bedroom with their parents and was told that at 3 daddy would still be bathing the child, changing nappies etc, and that isn't illegal or anything. Th only legal requirement is where brothers and sisters share a room, they should have their own rooms when the older child is 11 or 12, I was told.

I know what a nightmare it is to wait and I know everyone says it, but bug the council daily!!! It does work xxxx

Tell your brother to see his local councillor and complain. Get environmental health out to assess for overcrowding.

Oh, don't me started on this... We're going through the very same thing. Would you believe the current housing standards date back to 1935, when you had to count your KITCHEN as a sleeping area?! The guidelines were updated in 1985, but you can still legally share a bedroom with your child until they turn 10 years old. Our council (East London) has told us we're non priority as we only have a three year old and a six week old (plus ME AND HUBBY) in a one bedroom flat, and we should use our livingroom to sleep in, and let the kids have the bedroom. We were told we could be waiting from 5 to 10 years for a two bedroom home. Unfortunately this is what happens when the country sells off it's social housing stock, doesn't build more homes for the underpriviledged, and takes the piss, letting crazy amounts of immigrants and assylum seekers in (who always jump the que). I don't want to get into a heated discussion with the 'tax payers' who are angry at funding non-working families with lots of children---but can you see why some people do it? It's the only way to get decently housed. It works for some ethnic groups.