Teenagers are being forced to use crisp packets and cling film as a form of contraception because they cannot afford condoms, a sexual health expert says.
Mr Peter Greenhouse, who was the country's first consultant in sexual health, said many youngsters living in the country's poorest areas admit to improvising contraceptives when having sex.
Mr Greenhouse, who also set up the first integrated sexual health clinic in Ipswich in 1991 and is now based at the Bristol Royal Infirmary, warned that there was a desperate need for improved government funding to make contraception freely available.
He said: "The use of crisp packets and cling film is something anyone who has been working in sexual health for any period of time knows.
"These young people are so poverty stricken they cannot even afford the bus fare to get into town, so how can they afford condoms?
"The message about sexually transmitted diseases has got through to teenagers but they don't have the money to implement the advice.
"This sort of thing happens when people are desperate."
