HOMELESSNESS is increasing, more families are being placed in bed and breakfast and the district council is less able to help.

That was the bleak picture painted of the affordable housing and homelessness situation in East Hampshire by council leader Elizabeth Cartwright.

Mrs Cartwright said that 730 new affordable homes would need to be built each year in order to halt the problem because 86 per cent of emerging households in the district cannot afford to buy homes.

She added: ÒIt is unlikely we will ever catch up.Ó

Mrs Cartwright told councillors, in her annual state of the district address on housing, that 60 families were housed in bed and breakfast accommodation last year and the council had spent £60,000 on B&B accommodation in 2002/03 compared with just £17,000 in the previous year.

Mrs Cartwright commented that the situation is unlikely to improve because of new legislation and changes to the funding of affordable homes.

She said new legislation on homelessness had identified more housing needs groups, including 16 to 21 year olds and people who have been institutionalised such as ex-servicemen and ex-offenders.

And changes to the way affordable housing is funded are also likely to have a huge impact on the district.

ÒThe ending of Local Authority Social Housing Grants was devastating to us as an authority. It has taken away our ability to help the homelessness situation,Ó she said.

Under the old system of social housing grants the council could give money to affordable housing schemes and claim the cash back from the government.

Now money will be distributed directly by regional housing boards according to priority housing needs.

Mrs Cartwright said that Challenge Funding of £5.7m had been secured for schemes planned in the next two years, providing an extra 113 affordable units in the district.

But she added: ÒWe will now have to cope with new regional housing boards. We are really not sure what is going to happen after two years because we are not a priority area.

ÒOur main concern is there is not enough for rural areas and rural market towns.Ó

Mrs Cartwright said the Empty Homes campaign, designed to encourage property owners with empty houses to let them through housing associations, had met with limited success.

She added the government is discussing compulsory letting.