Flatlet houses will be registered with the city council in a bid to improve standards.

Some homes in the bedsitter belt provide the poorest housing in Brighton and Hove.

But they play a valuable role in providing low-cost housing for people who have little money.

Brighton and Hove City Council is to start a city-wide registration scheme that will give it better control.

Moves towards it were agreed at a housing decision-making meeting yesterday.

Under the Government-backed scheme, there will be a duty on landlords of bedsitters to apply for registration.

This follows the success of a pilot project in the Bloomsbury and Burlington area of Kemp Town.

The council has already consulted landlords, tenants and housing organisations and there has been widespread support for the scheme.

Some landlords say the scheme will isolate bad owners and help make the rest seem more respectable.

Landlords will be encouraged to improve the houses with better security, heating, insulation and fire-safety checks. The fee is likely to be £50 for each flatlet up to a maximum of £300 for each house.

Landlords who register quickly are likely to be offered grants to help with fire-safety works.

There are up to 8,000 flatlet houses that could be included in the scheme.

Housing Cabinet councillor Tehmtan Framroze said: "Some landlords are suspicious but we want to co-operate and work with them. We want them on our side."

He said the scheme should be self-financing and fees were being kept as low as possible so all they would do was recoup the costs.