New figures show a dramatic drop in the number of homeless people in Sussex.

However, homeless charity Shelter said the statistics should not be taken at face value after a national survey found evidence of local authority staff feeling pressurised to cut the number of people categorised as homeless.

Figures released yesterday by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister revealed 104 people were accepted by Brighton and Hove City Council as homeless between January and March 2005 out of a total of 268 applications.

It is a drop of 51 per cent compared to the same period last year when 211 people were accepted by the council out of 709 applications.

The figures also revealed the number of people in temporary accommodation in Brighton and Hove dropped by 21 per cent from 680 last year to 540 this year.

Throughout the county homelessness figures for the first quarter of 2005 varied with some regions following the national decrease while other areas continued to increase.

In Adur homelessness was on the rise with the district council accepting 43 people (25 last year). Chichester District Council accepted 16 people (six last year).

But in Lewes District Council, there was a significant decline of more than 50 per cent with only 21 people accepted (52 last year). Eastbourne District Council accepted 35 people (70 last year), Mid-Sussex District Council accepted 21 people (31 last year) and Wealden District Council accepted 65 (100 last year).

In other areas, the number of homeless people, who the local authority have a statutory duty to rehouse, remained about the same.

Arun District Council this year accepted 44 people compared to last year's 50, Hastings accepted 106 people (110 last year), Horsham District Council accepted 32 (35 last year) and Crawley Borough Council accepted 35 (44 last year).

Rother District Council accepted 36 people this year but figures for last year were unavailable.

Despite the marked improvement in most areas of the county, the results were challenged by Shelter.

A spokesman said: "We are talking about quite a huge drop in Brighton and Hove. The national figures float between a drop of about 15 to 28 per cent. If it means there are less homeless people then that is fantastic but we have got some evidence which suggests the figures should be read with a health warning."

In January, the charity's magazine Roof found 63 per cent of council housing staff interviewed said they felt under pressure to reduce the number of people they accepted as homeless.

Nationally there were 26,920 homelessness acceptances between January and March 2005 compared to 33,820 for the same period last year.