THE number of homeless people has risen by 14 per cent in a year due to “extortionate private rents” and a “dire lack of genuinely affordable” social homes, new research by Shelter has found.

The charity estimates that there are 354,016 homeless people in England — around one in 160 — on any given night this year.

This is 14 per cent higher than its 2023 estimate of 309,550 people but is still likely to be lower than the true figure, as not all types of homelessness, such as sofa-surfing, are recorded.