A couple have told how they have been living and sleeping in their car for nine weeks while they waited for a council home to be allocated.

Grandparents Tina and Winston Reid, both 54, have been moving around Mersea Island, Essex ever since their rented caravan became uninhabitable due to a broken sewage pipe.

The couple have been wearing extra layers and blankets but have both been admitted to accident and emergency with health problems including chilblains.

To keep clean, they have been washing and brushing their teeth in supermarket toilets.

Homeless charity Crisis estimate 12,000 people are sleeping in cars, buses, trains or tents every night in Britain.

Colchester Borough Council has now found the couple somewhere to live.