HOMELESSNESS was branded Britain’s “biggest source of shame” today after figures showed rough sleeping in England rose by a fifth in a year with record numbers of children crammed into B&Bs.

Annual government statistics estimated 4,667 people sleeping on the streets on a single night in autumn last year — a rise of 20 per cent — on the previous year’s snapshot of 3,898.

The latest figure is more than twice than when records began with 1,768 in 2010 and marks the third year in a row the number has risen since a peak of 4,751 in 2017.