A population explosion could mean 10,000 more people will be living in Brighton and Hove by 2018.

Experts and MPs have warned the boom could have “dire consequences” because of a housing shortage in the city.

It could also have an impact on school places and health services.

A new report predicts 260,000 people will call Brighton and Hove home in less than ten years’ time due to increased birth rates and students who stay on.

KemptownMPDes Turner said the revelation would increase pressure on city leaders to build on the urban fringe – greenfield sites which halt the spread of development.

He said: “Housing will be even more difficult.

“There is already a considerable shortage of more than 10,000 homes and this increase will create a need for an additional 5,000.”

Dr Turner added: “There are already a number of people in dire consequences due to the expensive house prices.

This will not help.”

The report, produced jointly by Brighton and Hove City Council and NHS Brighton and Hove to assess the future need for services, comes only weeks after the city was dubbed one of the most overcrowded in the country.

The report, which has been presented to the city’s 2020 strategic partnership, said the population explosion was a result of internal and external migration.

A large proportion of the city’s 32,000 students stay on after university, while every day nine babies are born and six people die.

Maria Caulfield, the council’s housing cabinet member, said: “There are major problems for young people and families trying to find somewhere to live in the city.

“We are trying a number of ways to solve this.

But we can’t do this on our own” Simon Fanshawe, chairman of the Brighton and Hove Economic Partnership, said he believed up to 12,000 extra people of working age would be coming into the city in the next decade.

He said: “We live in a country where there is freedom of movement and if people can come and find somewhere to live here, they will make huge sacrifices to do that.

“This is not something we can reverse so we have got to supply the jobs and look at things like the implication on school places.”