The number of people sleeping rough on the streets of Brighton and Hove has fallen by more than a third in the last year, according to Government figures.

The Government's Rough Sleepers Unit said a recent count showed there were now 26 homeless people in the towns compared with 43 the year before and 44 in 1998.

The news has been welcomed by politicians and those who work with the homeless, although some were sceptical about the figures.

They show there were 1,180 homeless people on the streets in England, a drop of 28 per cent on 1999. The worst areas were London, including Westminster, where 227 people were sleeping rough, followed by Oxford with 31 and then Brighton and Hove.

The figures were released by the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions alongside details of where an additional £9.5 million will be spent to further cut the number of rough sleepers in Britain.

Publication of the progress report puts it on course to meet the Prime Minister's target of reducing the number of people sleeping rough by at least two-thirds by 2002.

Stephen Sharpe, chief executive of the St Patrick's Trust, which helps homeless people in Brighton and Hove, said: "Brighton is working pretty hard to get people off the streets and the figures are encouraging but we still have a long way to go.

"The problem is there may be a large margin of error and it's difficult to say how accurate they are."

Des Turner, MP for Kemp Town, said: "There has been a dramatic effort locally to improve the situation, particularly from Brighton Housing Trust and Brighton and Hove Council whose very serious work has never received any recognition.

"Let's hope we are getting somewhere because the reasons people end up on the streets are long and complicated and everyone suffers, most of all them."

Louise Casey, head of the Rough Sleepers Unit, said: "While these new figures indicate good progress in the right direction, the Government is determined to ensure no one has to sleep out on the nation's streets in the 21st Century.

"We know the job of helping people who bed down on the streets night after night is not easy. The solutions for rough sleepers addicted to drugs, alcohol or with mental health problems are not cheap or basic."