TRAVELLERS should be designated lay-bys whereby their encampments are tolerated, a new fairness report has suggested.

The proposal would help to reduce inequality faced by traveller families and improve the lives of those with nowhere to live, it added.

It is just one of a number of radical recommendations made in Brighton and Hove’s Fairness Commission.

Released yesterday, the Fairness Commission report has been more than nine months in the making and will be used as a basis for the Labour administration’s next three budgets.

Other recommendations include offering publicly-owned land to co-operatives, self-build groups and community land trusts to develop affordable social housing guaranteed for local residents.

Other proposals designed to tackle the impact of the city’s housing shortage include creating low-cost and easy to build housing from shipping containers on dormant development sites which could then be moved to other sites once building work begins.

Establishing an ethical lettings agency for private rented housing has also been suggested along with proposals to encourage city businesses to publish their staff pay ratios.

In a bid to improve local engagement, the report's authors suggest making it easier to transfer underused publicly-owned buildings into the hands of community groups while also removing the barriers and bureaucracy preventing residents and communities from taking on greater resources and responsibilities.

The Fairness Commission was a key manifesto pledge made by the local Labour party ahead of last year’s council elections and mirrors similar operations held in other Labour council areas, largely in London.

The report’s publishers warn that without decisive action to tackle inequality the city’s reputation for diverse communities is at risk with Brighton and Hove potentially becoming home for just "the rich and elite".

Commissioners also raised concern that the city's economic success masked significant "poverty, inequality and fairness", new housing developments were targeted by "foreign investors" and unaffordable to residents while the primary care system was struggling to "remain sustainable".

The commission launched in September with nearly 1,500 residents, 70 groups and 25 experts taking part.

Commission chairwoman Vic Rayner thanked residents and communities for "their passion, energy and vision of fairness".

Council leader Warren Morgan said: “The report is a powerful reminder to the city that more must be done to tackle poverty and inequality and I am committed to making Brighton and Hove a fairer place, and doing whatever we can to ensure that everyone shares in our economic success.”