Local authorities and housing charities look set to clash over the future direction of homelessness policies in Wales.

The Welsh Local Government Association wants the number of targets included under the Welsh assembly's national homelessness strategy to be significantly reduced to simplify the issue among councillors and focus their attention.

Craig Mitchell, policy officer at the WLGA, said: "There are 24 targets and it is difficult to meet all of them. It causes confusion [for councils] on where to prioritise."

However, Joy Kent, director at housing charity Cymorth Cymru, warned that the danger of getting rid of some targets was that those areas could be forgotten by councils.

She said: "It is good for a national strategy to include everything and for councils to prioritise from there, depending on local needs. I believe it would be wrong for the national strategy to limit the number of possible priorities."

Consultants are reviewing the two-year-old strategy for the assembly.