Government plans to limit the time homeless families spend in temporary accommodation will leave thousands of their single counterparts in limbo, according to a leading charity.

Crisis in Scotland said that a legal limit on the amount of time councils can keep families and pregnant women in unsuitable temporary accommodation should apply to all homeless people.

The limit will be cut from 14 days to seven days next month, but the charity said that would improve the lot of only a "handful" of homeless people with children or expecting them. The latest figures show a total of 1113 homeless people in B&Bs and 1739 in hostels.

Crisis says spending long periods of time in B&Bs and many hostels is destructive, demoralising and stops people moving on after being homeless.

In a report to launch a new campaign "A Life in Limbo", Crisis said many of its clients are left to languish in unsuitable temporary accommodation with strict curfews and without access to basic facilities such as a washing machine, private bathroom or cooking facilities. Some have been left there for up to two years, it says.

Jamie, 41, who lived in B&B accommodation in Edinburgh for 14 months, said he had had to share three bathrooms with 13 other people. "I only had access to the kitchen for three hours throughout the day. Plus, there were cameras everywhere, in the stairs, the lobby, the kitchen,” he added.

“There was quite a high turnover of people with addiction or mental health issues, or that had just come out of prison and my mental health deteriorated due to the stress. I tried to stick to as normal a routine as I could. Some people slept all day. It’s survival mode. It’s not enjoying life.”

The charity is calling on the Minister for Local Government and Housing, Kevin Stewart MSP, to make a change in the law to extend this right to be rehoused within seven days to all homeless people to ensure that Scotland retains for world-leading homelessness policies.

Jon Sparkes, Chief Executive of Crisis, said: “Scotland should be proud that we have some of the best homelessness legislation in the world, but we cannot become complacent. No one, no matter what their circumstance, should be forced to live without basic facilities for prolonged periods of time. The Life in Limbo campaign seeks to extend a seven-day time-limit on placement in unsuitable temporary accommodation to all homeless people, otherwise we risk having a two-tier system."

Crisis says the quality of hostel accommodation varies but B&Bs are almost never suitable except as an emergency measure. While around half of Scotland's councils reported having no homeless people in B&Bs in the latest homelessness census, others have become increasingly reliant on them, the report says.

Mr Sparkes added: "In some parts of Scotland, including Edinburgh, the Highlands and Aberdeenshire, local authorities have had to rely more and more on B&Bs to meet their legal duties. Crisis is also calling for all councils who use unsuitable temporary accommodation to be required to produce a plan to reduce its use within their area."

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “As our Programme for Government made clear, tackling and preventing homelessness remains a key priority and our new Homelessness and Rough Sleeping Action Group will look directly at how we transform the use of temporary accommodation and end rough sleeping.

"We are delighted that Jon Sparkes, CEO of Crisis, has agreed to chair this Group and look forward to their recommendations. We are backing our ambition with a £50m Ending Homelessness Together Fund to drive change and improvement in this area.”