A FAMILY of 11 living in a house in Ronkswood, Worcester, say they believe they should be more of a priority when it comes to being housed.

Since November last year, Gwen and Martin Hughes have been sharing their three-bed semi-detached house in Norwich Road with their daughter, Julie Howard, and her eight children.

The family of nine were previously living in Malvern but they had to leave the house fearing for their safety after rocks were thrown through the living room windows, narrowly missing Miss Howard's newborn baby.

"We knew we had to find somewhere else to live, and we ended up coming back to live with my parents," Miss Howard said.

"But it has been really hard. My partner, Scott, has had to move in with his sister because there just isn't room and he can't stand the chaos.

"There just isn't room here and we've been bidding on houses and losing out each time. It doesn't seem like we're a priority at all."

Worcester City Council say the family is a priority but it simply does not have any available homes big enough to house the family.

Mr and Mrs Hughes have lived in the house for 40 years, moving in four years after they married to raise their own family.

After thinking their child-raising days were over, they now help care for 16-year-old Olivia, Lucca, aged 14, Georgina, 13, Noah, eight, Poppy, seven, Maisie-Grace, five, Tegan-Amelia, almost two, and Alfie-Mason, seven months.

Mrs Hughes, aged 63, said: "We've raised our three children, so we didn't think we'd have to raise eight more. We love our family and it's nice having the kids around but it's too much for us.

"We thought it was only for a short time. We are both very unwell and it's taking a toll on our health.

"We have Julie and the two youngest sleeping in the living room, myself, my husband and two kids in our room, three kids in another room on blow up beds and Olivia sleeps on her own in the box bedroom.

"Preparing breakfast, lunch and dinner is a nightmare — there are so many mouths to feed, it's total chaos.

"All the older kids help out, but we are doing around seven to eight loads of washing every single day. It's never ending.

"Because it's always so loud, the older kids find it hard to study. It's just awful."

A spokesman for Worcester City Council said: "This family does qualify for the highest housing priority, but finding a big enough property is proving difficult as there are few available of the necessary size.”