Official figures do not come near the reality of rough sleeping across Britain

This Christmas more than 24,000 people will spend the festive period sleeping rough on streets, in cars, buses, tents or riding on public transport for warmth and company.

Crisis has published research showing the extent of this hidden homelessness with the charity insisting official figures fail to show the true extent of the problem.

The homelessness charity’s research shows 12,300 people are sleeping rough on the streets (the official figure is 4,751) while a further 12,000 will spend the night in tents, cars, sheds, bins or night buses.

Figures calculated by researchers at Heriot-Watt University reveals the number of rough sleepers in Britain has risen by 98% since 2010 and the number in tents and buses has increased by 103%.

Jon Sparkes, chief executive of Crisis, said: “Christmas should be a time of joy, but for thousands of people sleeping rough, in tents or on public transport it will be anything but.

“While most of the country will be celebrating and enjoying a family meal, those who are homeless will face a struggle just to stay safe and escape the cold.

“This situation simply cannot continue. While the Scottish government has taken the first step in announcing a plan to eradicate homelessness, full implementation cannot come soon enough.

Meanwhile, the governments in England and Wales must step up urgently with their own plans to end this crisis.”

England Wales’s housing and homelessness minister, Heather Wheeler, said: “It is good to see our homeless reduction act making a real difference but we know we need to do more.

“That is why we are investing £1.2bn to tackle all forms of homelessness, we are putting £9bn into our affordable housing programme and we are also empowering councils to borrow to build more council homes to ensure that more people have a home of their own.”