A charity which offers housing, debt and welfare benefit advice is closing its Dover and Ashford centres.

Shelter is shutting nine services across the country, two of them in Kent. Dover and Ashford will both be closing on March 31.

But a third service in Chatham has been saved.

The charity says the closures are as a result of a 36% reduction in legal aid funding for their face-to-face advice, offering help to many people including those who are homeless.

Shelter bids for legal aid contracts from the Legal Services Commission, and these contracts are the biggest single source of Shelter’s advice work.

Because of the reduced funding, it decided not to bid for LSC contracts in locations where it was no longer sustainable to do so.

Chief executive Campbell Robb said the closures would be a massive blow to people in the areas affected.

“Sadly we have had to take the difficult decision to close nine of our housing advice services.

"This is a result of the huge cuts to legal aid in England, which we campaigned vigorously against.

"while service closures are absolutely a last resort, we simply cannot fill the gap created by the scale of these cuts with other sources" – shelter chief executive campbell robb

"These cuts have left us with a significant reduction in our legal aid funding to support our face-to-face advice services.

“The cuts have meant some difficult decisions about how we best use the resources we have to help those in housing need.

"While service closures are absolutely a last resort, we simply cannot fill the gap created by the scale of these cuts with other sources."

Mr Robb said the organisation had been consulting with the staff affected, which had also led to the threatened Chatham service being saved.

He added: “These closures are a massive blow to people in these areas who will no longer be able to get face-to-face advice and support from Shelter.

"We will be doing all we can to ensure people around the country can still get help with their housing problems through our helpline and website.

“With the ongoing recession, benefit cuts, and the high cost of housing meaning more and more people struggling to keep a roof over their heads, now is the very worst time to be taking away the housing safety net that helps people stay in their homes.”

Anyone who is having a housing problem can still get free, independent advice from Shelter’s helpline on 0808 800 4444 or the website www.shelter.org.uk/advice