HOMELESS people are being offered one-way train tickets by a number of local authorities, an investigation has found.

The 20 councils with the highest number of rough sleepers in England were asked — some through freedom of information requests — how many homeless people had been offered the ”reconnection” policy between 2012-17.

Of the 11 councils that responded, 10 said they had bought such tickets, the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire show reported yesterday.

The scheme can be used to reconnect rough sleepers with their families, but Gareth Glendall-Pickton, who grew up in the Dorset coast town of Bournemouth, said he had been offered a ticket to Manchester, where he had never set foot.

“It made me feel sick. I’ve lived here all my life … It’s soul-destroying,” he said.

Manchester City Council revealed that it had spent £9,928 on reconnecting homeless people in six years, while other councils shelled out more than £1,000 a year.

Bournemouth Borough Council said it had arranged 144 reconnections in three-and-a-half years.

Rick Henderson, chief executive of Homeless Link, the national membership organisation for homelessness charities in England, urged local authorities to ensure any reconnection work is not just seen as a “quick fix” for the problem.

He said the scheme could help to end rough sleeping if the person had a support network or was entitled to access services and accommodation in a different area, but he added: “Simply displacing rough sleepers without offering support is not solving the issue and, at worst, can exacerbate their situation, leaving them more isolated and at risk of deteriorating physical and mental health.”

The charity warned that the government’s forthcoming Homelessness Reduction Act needed to be backed with adequate funding to enable councils to respond effectively.