A mother must choose between sleeping on a sofa or moving to bed-and-breakfast accommodation 25 miles from her children's schools.

Anne Ballantine, 45, has spent the last five years living in a privately-rented, two-bedroom property in Hove where she sleeps in the lounge while her children share the bedrooms.

Now the family is being evicted through no fault of its own.

Mrs Ballantine, of Fallowfield Crescent, has been told the only available accommodation is a bed-and-breakfast hostel in Eastbourne, where they may have to live for up to two years.

She says she will find another two-bedroom property in Hove, the only property she can afford, for the sake of her children, Tim, 14, William, 12, and Elizabeth, ten.

Mrs Ballantine said: "I will sleep on the sofa for another five years if I have to so my children can continue to go to school in the area."

The grim reality faced by the family is testimony to the crippling shortage of affordable housing in Brighton and Hove.

Mrs Ballantine has been on the city council's housing register for the last five years waiting for an affordable three-bedroom property to become available.

Although the family is now registered homeless and has been given top priority, there is still no suitable accommodation in the city.

Mrs Ballantine, who works part-time as a secretary for a private detective agency, is familiar with the housing shortage as she used to work as a constituency secretary for Hove MP Ivor Caplin.

She said: "I am aware of the housing crisis in the city. If anything, I feel it even more desperately because I know the reality. It's frustrating."

A spokeswoman for Brighton and Hove City Council's housing department said: "The fact is the housing situation in the city is dire.

"The reason this family has been offered accommodation in Eastbourne is because there is simply no other option.

"We cannot produce houses out of thin air. Some families have to wait longer than others depending on housing need.

"I do not think this is an exceptional case. Sadly, there are lots of other families who are in an even worse position."