More Oxfordshire families are living in temporary accommodation now than a decade ago, figures released show.

The Liberal Democrats have published data that shows last year, 1,020 households in Oxfordshire were classed as living in temporary accommodation - bed and breakfast, bedsits or hostels used for emergency shelter.

That was 89 more than in 1997, the year Labour came to power. The biggest rise took place in Cherwell, where the number of temporarily housed families increased from 96 in 1997 to 235 last year.

Oxford was one of a number of areas to buck the trend, with households waiting for a permanent home falling from 652 in 1997-98 to 581 in 2006-07.

Despite that improvement, the city remained the most difficult place in the county to get a home. In Oxford, more than 5,000 people are waiting for a council house.

Nationally, the number of households in temporary accommodation doubled over the decade, from 43,000 to 86,000.

Julia Goldsworthy, the Liberal Democrats' communities spokesman, said the problem had been caused in part by a 10 per cent fall in the amount of available social housing since 1997.

She said: "Thousands of families have been let down by Labour. The real problem here is the lack of social housing to rent. Local authorities must be allowed to invest in more social housing."

The Department for Communities and Local Government, which was the source of the figures, said the number of Oxfordshire households in temporary accommodation was falling fast.

Last year's total of 1,020 was down from 1,537 the previous year. A spokesman said: "Many more people would have simply been ignored under the old system.

"We have reduced rough sleeping by 73 per cent since 1998 and are ending the scandal of homeless families with children having to live in cramped bed and breakfast hotels for long periods.

"We have also set the challenging target to halve the number of people living in temporary accommodation by 2010."