OXFORD City Council has failed to meet its target for keeping homeless people off the streets for a second night.

A report to be presented to the housing panel last night said the authority does not have enough beds available to support its No Second Night Out scheme.

The council blamed the shortfall on rising demand.

It also said the city council is in the process of bidding to provide all the homeless provision in Oxford in a tendering process with the county council.

But the process was delayed because cuts in funding to organisations that might provide services for the homeless had to be taken into account.

The report says: “The on-going target to reduce the number of new rough sleepers spending a second night out on the streets is currently not being met.

“This is due to an increase in representations and a lack of suitable ‘move on’ accommodation.

“The review and tender process was delayed from the original target date.

“The impact of significant reductions in available funding to partners needed to be considered before the tender process could commence.”

It said once the tendering process was complete more beds should be made available so the target could be met.

The report is part of a mid-term review of the council’s homelessness strategy which runs from 2013-18.