A homelessness charity is pledging to fill up to a quarter of its staff vacancies with former rough sleepers.

London-based Thames Reach Bondway wants this group to make up 10 per cent of its 321-strong workforce by 2007. Chief executive Jeremy Swain hopes to increase this to 25 per cent eventually.

Funded by London Housing Foundation, Oak Foundation and Off the Streets and Into Work the £533,000 project also involves homelessness charity Broadway.

Swain said the project would inspire homeless people and create new aspiration as they saw their friends take jobs in the sector.

But he warned it would require a "culture change" in his organisation and eventually in the sector as a whole. "I hope this is where the whole sector moves and it becomes the norm. It's a bigger revolution we've got in mind," Swain said.

The charity will begin recruiting in July.