Rising levels of debt are forcing people into the hands of loan sharks.

A debt charity has expressed concern over the dramatic rise in the number of people in the city needing its help and the level of their problems.

Brighton and Hove City Council has responded by hosting an event aimed at deterring debtors from turning to loan sharks.

A spokesman for the Consumer Credit Counselling Service (CCCS) said there has been a 47% rise in people seeking its help in the city with the number of clients able to repay their debts falling to a five-year low.

Delroy Corinaldi, CCCS external affairs director, said: “The picture is undoubtedly bleak and it seems likely that many more families, including better-off ones, will be increasingly prone to over-indebtedness in the months ahead.

“Not only are there more people from Brighton contacting us for help with their debts but those who do are in an increasingly worse situation.”