Rise in hotel rooms used to house Brighton's homeless

One family was housed at a four-star hotel on Brighton seafront

More families are being housed in hotels and other nightly rooms in Brighton due to a lack of short-term accommodation, the BBC has learned.

One household made homeless by a fire were put up in a four-star seafront hotel.

Conservative politicians said Brighton and Hove City Council had failed to address the wider shortage of housing and build more homes.

The council is due to discuss plans to find more accommodation this month.

Between April and August, 198 households were placed in "spot-purchased" accommodation, in which the council buys a room on a last-minute, nightly basis in hotels, B&Bs and other rented rooms.

The council forecasts it will have to do this for 337 households by March 2020, compared to an average of 284 per year in the previous four financial years.

Three people made homeless by a fire in December were put up at the Jurys Inn on Brighton seafront, at a cost of £75 per person.

The BBC obtained documents showing a family of three had been housed in the four-star hotel after a house fire in 2018

Labour councillor John Allcock, chair of the council's new homes committee, said it was a result of the "massive pressure on housing in the city due to the national housing crisis".

He said hotels like Jurys Inn were used only in "urgent situations".

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Conservative councillor Mary Mears said some of the housing shortage was "the council's own making".

"By failing to build more council houses and move on the thousands that we have on the waiting lists, we are getting to an impasse," she added.

Angelique Glata, who manages emergency accommodation in the city, said hotels were sometimes the best option in emergencies.

"Putting somebody in an establishment which houses challenging people might not be the right thing to do," she said.

"If somebody has had a challenging or difficult experience, and it's late at night, let's just get them somewhere clean, warm and safe quickly."