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The government has told him to cut the number of homeless families dumped in bed and breakfast hotels, but B&B tsar Ashley Horsey is not setting himself any targets - yet. Anabel Unity Sale reports.

It is Ashley Horsey's first day as head of the government's new bed and breakfast unit, and in his eighth-floor London office his posters and photos are already up. Above his tidy desk hangs an unusually flattering caricature of himself, and from his window there is a clear view of MI6's glittering green headquarters across the River Thames.

Announced last May, the B&B unit is the government's latest weapon in the fight against homelessness. Part of the Department of Transport, Local Government and the Regions, the unit will devote the next two years to reducing the number of people living in B&B accommodation by encouraging statutory agencies to find alternative solutions.

When I ask him how his first day is going he pauses before replying: "It's interesting." Interesting is putting it mildly. The unit follows in the footsteps of the controversial rough sleepers unit (RSU), which was set up in 1999 under Louise Casey to reduce the number of people sleeping on the country's streets. While the RSU insists it is on track to meet its target of reducing the number of rough sleepers by two-thirds by 2002, its methods have been criticised by some, while others have questioned whether the unit has succeeded in targeting those people with the most intractable problems.

But while rough sleepers are a highly visible social problem, people living in B&Bs are the hidden side of homelessness. Will Horsey's new baby have the scope and clout to bring the issue into the limelight?

There are currently 11,000 households in B&Bs, including 8,000 in London, and the number is rising. In fact, the problem was sizeable enough for Labour to include a pledge to reduce it in its manifesto for the general election earlier this year.

"What you've have at the moment is a situation where B&B usage is high and it is not a situation that anyone could consider to be acceptable," Horsey says. He adds that housing single people and families in B&Bs is not only expensive but also has unacceptable long-term effects on their well being, including ill-health, poor educational attainment and mental health problems.

The key question is by how many the unit plans to reduce the number of people living in B&Bs. Although the unit has agreed in principle to set a target, Horsey will not be drawn on what the figure may be. He insists that such a target will only be announced after the sector has been consulted, which the unit is currently doing. "It would be completely wrong for me to come in and to say to local authorities, the housing world and the world in general, 'I know what you need to do, and the target is XYZ'," he says.

Horsey stresses he is keen to discuss what the unit's target should be with councils, housing associations and private landlords, because they are the agencies that will house the people being moved out of B&Bs. He says: "Any target that we set, if it isn't accepted and if isn't bought into by the sector, could well end up being meaningless."

So will the unit follow in the RSU's footsteps and try to eradicate two-thirds of the problem? Not necessarily, says Horsey. "The unit is operating in a very difficult set of circumstances and we need to be realistic." However, this does not mean the unit will aim low and he suggests the sector will be pulled up short if it is "too timid" in setting a target, suggests Horsey. "Most people like challenging targets and the skill is in setting challenging but achievable targets," he adds.

But while it is inevitable that Horsey will have to keep one eye on his targets, will he be able to keep the other on ensuring that vulnerable people with additional needs are not left behind in B&Bs? Horsey insists he will: "One of the things has got to be about the access to care and support provision. The system should be in place to make sure that they area getting the level of support they require."

Like the RSU, the B&B unit has a finite lifespan - currently set at 24 months, because as Horsey puts it: "The ultimate, long-term goal is that local authorities, registered social landlords, the private sector and government machinery in general will be working in such a way that we don't need a specialist unit to sit on people's shoulders and be their conscience."