Brighton and Hove may be in the throes of a housing crisis but there are more than 1,800 homes lying empty in the city.

New figures show hundreds of empty properties are still dotted throughout the city's streets, despite significant progress by the council to reduce the number.

Meanwhile, thousands of first-time buyers are giving up trying to get on to the property ladder because of spiralling house prices.

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott estimates half a million new homes will be needed to cater for the South-East's growing population over the next 20 years.

On Friday Mr Prescott and Chancellor Gordon Brown revealed plans to build new homes on disused NHS sites in Sussex. The proposed area is equivalent to 15 football pitches but even this would not be enough to ease the housing shortage.

Empty homes are not only part of the shortage but also cause other problems for their neighbours.

Most of the 1,818 empty properties in Brighton and Hove have not been abandoned and there are plans to bring many of them back into use soon but about 400 have been empty for six months or more.

The number of empty homes in Brighton and Hove as a whole fell from 2,676 in 2003 to 1,818 last month.

Of these, the number of empty council houses fell from 208 to 193, while the number of empty privately-owned homes fell from 2,468 to 1,625.

Jane Gilbert, empty homes officer at Brighton and Hove City Council, said: "It is the long-term properties that cause a nuisance. They have a negative impact on an area. They attract antisocial behaviour and are likely to be squatted so they aren't just standing empty, they affect other people as well."

The council provides help and advice to owners of empty properties and grants to bring properties up to scratch so they can be used to house homeless people.

Miss Gilbert expects the council to surpass its target of bringing 126 empty properties back into use this year.

She said: "I would say the situation is getting better, there is a lot of work going on."

Robert Haycock, chief executive at the Brighton-based Southern Private Landlord's Association, said any landlord worth their salt would make sure their properties were occupied whenever possible, as they become a financial liability when left abandoned.

He said: "Most properties are left empty when they are tied up in probate.

"Others are left when elderly people go to a nursing home believing they are going to return. Subsequently, age catches up with them and it never happens. Otherwise, there is no reason to have a property empty."

David Ireland, local authority adviser from the Empty Homes Agency, insisted Brighton and Hove had relatively few empty homes compared to similar London boroughs.

He said: "In areas of high demand for housing, such as Brighton and Hove, there is still a hardcore of properties which the market does not seem to be able to bring back into use, that's when the authorities need to intervene."

Owners who refuse to bring their properties back into use could be put under more pressure later this year when new legislation will make it possible for the council to make management orders, which will give control of the property to the council.

Brighton and Hove City Council's strategy for getting empty homes back into use is due to be reviewed this year.

Wasted homes are a big issue in Brighton and Hove, where there is a chronic shortage of low-cost housing for key workers such as police and nursing staff. Ray Pattenden, secretary of the Police Federation in Sussex, said: "If there was a rise in the amount of key worker housing, there would be no shortage of applicants from the police."

Janine Enefer, from Moulsecoomb, was annoyed at the number of empty houses around Birdham Road.

She said: "They just make it look like there is a lack of care about Moulsecoomb from the authorities because we are not in the centre of the city but it would be quite a nice area if it were tidied up."

Douglas Butler, of Chester Terrace, Hove, said it was wrong for houses to be left empty for years on end, as has happened to one house in his road that could be worth £300,000 in good condition.

According to Government statistics, disputed by the city council, there are 665 homeless families in Brighton and Hove, 170 of them living in bed and breakfast hostels.

Dawn Sommerford, 24, has been living in bed and breakfast hostels with her four-year-old son for about 18 months. She currently shares a room with her son, where she also cooks and sleeps.

She lost her private flat when she started drinking heavily and failed to pay the rent for three months.

The council said she had made herself homeless on purpose so she does not meet the criteria for a council flat.

She says she has been advised to take out a crisis loan with a credit union to pay the deposit on a flat so she can get back on her feet.

She said: "My son started school in September and he has deteriorated. The school is concerned and the teachers say he doesn't want to do anything.

"Social services recognise that I am young and vulnerable with a young child.

"I am trying to stay away from alcohol but it is a really big battle.

"I go past a few empty houses on the way to school in the mornings and it is a real slap in the face, it gets me down."