A scheme to discourage people from giving to beggars, by encouraging them to support charities for the homeless instead, could be launched in Brighton.

The "alternative giving scheme" has been proposed by the town's homelessness tsar, Helen Keats, whose role is to reduce rough sleeping and nuisance on the streets.

Instead of giving money to beggars, people who want to help can give money via secure boxes in shops, restaurants and bars.

The money would go directly to charities and groups which work with the homeless in Brighton and no administration fee would be charged.

Ms Keats, who has been seconded to work with Brighton's rough sleepers unit until December, said: "People can give directly to beggars, but they will not know what it is going to be spent on, or they can give directly to the agencies which help the homeless.

"With the alternative giving scheme, 100 per cent of the money will ideally go to local homeless people."

Similar schemes have been set up in Cheltenham, Exeter, Manchester and Oxford.

The Cheltenham scheme was launched in 1996 in response to complaints about begging in the town.

The money, which is collected in shops and public places, goes to the Cheltenham Community Project which provides food and hostel or bed and breakfast accommodation for the homeless.

Sylvia Salmon, the community project director, said the scheme, known as the End the Begging Campaign, had reduced the amount of beggars in the town significantly.

She said: "Cheltenham is one of those towns with a fair number of beggars and there was some concern among the public who wanted to help genuine beggars but not the ones that were conning them.

"We ended up with fewer people begging but there were not masses of people coming along to get food and help with accommodation, which suggested that a lot of the people begging may not have been genuine."

In the first year about £1,000 was raised through the alternative giving scheme.

This year about £500 has been raised, which Ms Salmon has put down to there being fewer people begging on the streets.

She said: "Not only has it been a disincentive to beg but those people who are in genuine need have got to know that we are here and we have been able to help them."

John Harvey, the city centre manager in Exeter, was behind the "devoted giving scheme" set up there in December.

He said: "One of the reasons the devoted giving scheme has been so successful in Exeter is that it has been set up as part of a co-ordinated response to the problem of begging, street drinking and anti-social behaviour.

"We have targeted policing and have put up more lighting and gating in the streets to keep beggars out of certain areas.

"We also look carefully at planning applications to make sure we don't design in little dark corners. And we have a campaign to say to people that they must report begging."

Collecting boxes were distributed in shops and public buildings across Exeter last year as were posters and leaflets encouraging people to use them or to give money directly to the agencies that help homeless people in the city.

In the first two months about £600 was collected. This was used to provide clothing vouchers to homeless people which could be exchanged in local charity shops.

Tehmtan Framroze, Brighton and Hove Council's executive councillor for housing, said he hoped the scheme would help eradicate begging from the towns.

He said: "It should not be necessary for people to beg in this day and age.

"The proposed alternative giving scheme would help to make sure there were enough services for homeless people.

"The best way to give money to homeless people is through a centralised system that looks after them, for example St Patrick's Trust.

"There are a number of homeless charities in the town which are doing fantastic work and such a scheme could help them do more.

"In the meantime, until it is set up, I give money to homeless charities and I would ask other people to do the same."

Frazer McEwen, the director of services for Addaction, which helps people including beggars and the homeless with drug addictions, is keen to see the alternative giving scheme set up as soon as possible.

On Friday he will meet with representatives of groups working with the homeless in Brighton and the former council leader, Lord Bassam, to discuss the scheme.

Mr McEwen said: "Rather than giving money to beggars, people can make a donation that can contribute towards improving access to information and services for people on the streets.

"This would do more to improve the circumstances of beggars rather than facilitate their status quo."