The Probation Service is suffering from a shortage of staff despite having more money to attract recruits.

The number of qualified probation officers in Sussex is almost ten per cent below its optimum.

Although the service has been given a large increase in money this year, it is having difficulty attracting officers because of the high cost of living.

Chief officer for the Sussex probation area Brian Clark said: "We have got significant financial growth this financial year compared with last year. But nationally there is a shortage of probation officers.

"When Michael Howard was Home Secretary, he ended the previous regime of probation training and there was a gap of about two years before the new regime started.

"In Sussex, we have a shortage in the order of five to ten officers out of a staff of about 110. Probation officers are coming through now but not at the levels sufficient to cover the growth in resources we have.

"Between East and West Sussex, we previously took on six trainees a year and now we have targeted recruitment of 23.

"We do get probation officers applying from other areas but they tend to come in ones or twos.

"We have a particular problem here because people are not able to move to the South-East from elsewhere in the country.

"There is a London salary weighting but, outside London, officers are paid roughly the same."

Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of the National Association of Probation Officers, said: "It is an issue raised regularly in the South-East.

"Every probation service in the country is struggling to recruit but the problem is not as bad in the North. That is due to the cost of living.

"People cannot get on to the property ladder in the South-East. The Government has thrown allowances at others but not at us yet."