Homelessness has risen by as much as 80% in one Kent town.

The number of people expected to be placed in temporary accommodation in Maidstone has already surged this year, and it is predicted the situation will only get worse.

Mark Green, Maidstone council's director of finance, said he is now expecting the local authority will need to house 180 people.

Mr Green said the hike in homelessness so far had been down to the ending of the Covid measures, and people losing their tenancies in the private rented sector which had previously been secured during the pandemic.

But, speaking at an audit committee meeting, he anticipated rising interest rates following recent government decisions could lead to another jump in homelessness next year.

Cllr Patrik Garten (Con) said: "I'm not convinced that inflation has reached its ceiling at even 10%. I think it will go higher."

Cllr Garten said: "If inflation goes bad and the economy goes belly up, then in two years from now when people are unable to meet their mortgages and their houses get repossessed, there will be a big problem."

Cllr Martin Cox (Ind Group) said: "Landlords' cost are going up. Mortgages are expected to rise to 6% above the base rate, so that's maybe 10%, we're looking at homelessness getting much worse. It's very alarming."

He warned that there had been "a whole generation of people who have never heard of negative equity" predicting that would change.

Negative equity is a situation where falling house prices make it difficult for homeowners to move, because the price they would get for selling their homes would not cover the amount they still owed on their mortgage.

Mr Green warned the increasing need for temporary housing would cost the council an extra £700,000 in the current financial year above what had been planned.

That, combined with the current inflationary pressures, led him to tell the audit committee: "I cannot guarantee that we can maintain a balanced budget."

After the meeting, Cllr Stuart Jeffery (Green) said another pressure on the council's housing budget might come from Ukrainian refugees.

He said: "A lot of people took in Ukrainian refugees for a period of six months. It was assumed at the time that it would be a short war and that would be long enough.

"That is not the case and it has been reported nationally that many hosts are not prepared to continue hosting the refugees beyond the six-month period, which is understandable, it's a big imposition.

"I'm not sure of the legal situation, whether the council would be obliged to house those refugees who found themselves homeless, but we would certainly have a moral obligation."

Andy Pike runs a soup kitchen for Maidstone's homeless and vulnerable people. The project called Hungry Hearts For The Homeless hands out food and drinks twice at week from the College Road car park in Maidstone.

Mr Pike said: "We are there on Mondays and Wednesdays from 7pm to 8pm. We used to get maybe 30 people come along for help, now there's often 50 or 60.

"The numbers are just going up all the time. Sometimes we are running out of food to give them."

The homeless charity Porchlight has already warned that Kent is "looking down the barrel" of a homelessness crisis.

Anyone able to support Hungry Hearts For The Homeless with cash or food should ring Mr Pike on 07565 198945.