Seven thousand people are living in severely overcrowded conditions in Sussex, a housing investigation has revealed.

According to a joint report by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister (ODPM) and Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), 2,000 households in Brighton and Hove will break new minimum standards of decency.

That means two per cent of homes will be officially overcrowded under new criteria laid down by the Housing Bill.

In East Sussex 4,000 homes, or 1.7 per cent, are overcrowded. In West Sussex the total is 3,000, or 0.8 per cent.

The Housing Bill revamps official definitions of overcrowding which pre-date the Second World War.

Ministers take into account the number and size of bedrooms available and the needs of all people in the accommodation.

A baby under 12 months is not currently considered when assessing how many people live in a house.

A child under ten is counted as half a person.

Details unearthed by the ODPM and DWP report, which used a more modern measure of overcrowding, will be presented to MPs this summer.

Factors blamed for overcrowding include rogue landlords trying to cram homes and householders side-stepping agreements on how many people can live in a home.

As part of the Bill, new controls are being introduced for Houses in Multiple Occupation (HMOs).

All HMOs of three or more storeys and five or more occupants will have to be licensed.

Councils will be given discretionary powers to extend the regime to smaller HMOs.

Nationally, the new overcrowding rate will be 2.4 per cent.

A Government spokesman admitted the science of overcrowding was not exact.

But the report's authors insisted their work was detailed and thorough.