A GENERATION of children are having their lives blighted by homelessness, a charity has warned as official figures show huge rises in homeless and rough sleeping.

There were 145,800 children in temporary accommodation as of the end of December last year, up by a fifth from 20 years ago when records for this measure began.

The figure is up 15 per cent from the same period in 2022, data from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) shows.