The parents of two severely disabled boys who claimed they have received inadequate support from their local council have lost their High Court challenge.

Michael and Henrietta Spink were challenging Wandsworth social services over the level of provision of aids and adaptations for the boys in their home in London.

However, the judge ruled that the local authority was entitled to consider the financial resources of the parents in deciding whether it was necessary to make arrangements to meet the boys' needs.

The couple's sons, aged 12 and 16, both need 24-hour care. Their current care package costs the council more than £60,000 a year.

The judge said a local authority would have to look very carefully at the overall circumstances when parents had the financial resources to meet their children's needs but had expressed an unwillingness to do so.

But he could see no reason why a local authority should not be allowed, where appropriate, to conclude it was unnecessary to meet those needs.

Afterwards the Spinks said they may have to sell their home in order to continue looking after their sons.

They called it a "political judgement" that "reinforced the move away from local authority support for disabled children and their families".

Wandsworth's director of social services, Peter West, said it was an important ruling for all local authorities.