Noel Janes thinks it's unfair he is being forced out of his flat through rising rents after his housing benefit failed to go up to meet it.

He now has a week in which to leave his flat at Windsor Street in Brighton. He wants to challenge the law but is unlikely to succeed. A far better move would be to change it.

Mr Janes is typical of many tenants all over the city. The gap is widening between benefits which are fixed and rents which are not. As a result, more and more people are becoming homeless.

He has already been in touch with his MP, David Lepper, who is doing his best to tell the Government what is happening in Brighton and Hove. So is Cabinet housing councillor Tehmtan Framroze who sees the number of homeless families and the cost to keep them in temporary housing rising year by year.

Not much can be done about market forces which are making rents rise in a city where housing is both desirable and in short supply. But making housing benefit meet most of the costs is not only socially desirable but also economic sense.

Huge sums are spent on housing benefit in the city, not far off £2 million every week. The Government understandably does not want it to rise.

But it is even more expensive putting people in temporary housing or finding hostels for them after picking them off the street.