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Thousands of children are growing up in shipping containers, office buildings and B&Bs in Britain, the Children’s Commissioner warns today.

Families are being crammed into tiny living spaces which are frequently not fit for them to live in, dangerous and often far away from family, friends and their school.

Some temporary homes are infested with mice. Other families reported water dripping on children’s faces as they slept.

And parents reported shared kitchens in some B&Bs were used to prepare drugs.

The Commissioner’s ‘Bleak Houses’ report estimates there could be more than 210,000 homeless children in England – 124,000 officially homeless and living in temporary accommodation, plus around 90,000 children living in ‘sofa-surfing’ families.

And a lack of data on the number of children placed in temporary accommodation by children’s services means the figures could be even higher.

Are you and your family living in a shipping container or cramped conditions? Email: webnews@mirror.co.uk

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Newly relaxed planning rules mean former office blocks and warehouses are converted into tiny, temporary homes - and councils are often unable object.

Some measuring as little as 18 square metres to be shared between a whole family - and many buildings are hotbeds of crime and anti-social behaviour.

More recently families have been temporarily housed in converted shipping containers, stacked on disused land.

Researchers from the Commissioner’s office visited a shipping container site, where parents complained noise travels easily in the metal containers.

This made it difficult for children to sleep at night.

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And one family said condensation dripped down the walls.

Daisy, 11, told researchers: “When we sleep water drips on us which we don’t like.”

Anne Longfield, the Children’s Commissioner for England said: “Something has gone very wrong with our housing system when children are growing up in B&Bs, shipping containers and old office blocks.

“Children have told us of the disruptive and at times frightening impact this can have on their lives.”

Families living in B&Bs can find themselves sharing facilities with people who can present a risk to their children.

Mia, a pregnant young woman, told researchers: “I used to open my door to find drug dealers and men just standing there.

“People would cook up crack in the kitchen so I could never eat there. I had to eat out all the time.”

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And Matthew, aged 14, said: “I lived in a hotel for 8 months ... it’s like where all the prostitutes live.”

“Cigarette smoke would come under my door,” said Danielle, a mother of a three year old.

“And a man threatened to kill me when I asked him about it.”

A specialist health visitor told researchers: “We’ve been working with a mum who won’t put her 18 month old baby on the floor to play because of a mice infestation so she spends a lot of time in her high chair. But children need floor play.”

Ms Longfield added: “It is a scandal that a country as prosperous as ours is leaving tens of thousands of families in temporary accommodation for long periods of time, or to sofa surf.

“It is essential that the Government invests properly in a major house-building programme and that it sets itself a formal target to reduce the number of children in temporary accommodation.”

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John Healey MP, Labour ’s Shadow Housing Secretary, said: “No child should be facing school again this September with no home to live in.

“The number of homeless children has gone up every year since 2010 and the Commissioner's stark warning that over 200,000 children now have no home should make Ministers hang their heads in shame.

“Labour will build a million genuinely affordable homes, including the biggest council housing programme in 40 years, give renters legal protection from unfair evictions and end rough sleeping homelessness within a Parliament."

Louisa McGeehan, director of policy at Child Poverty Action Group, said: “In the UK we believe that every family should have a place they can call home but the reality is that tens of thousands of homeless families are paying a terrible price for sky-high private rents and woefully few affordable homes.

“We know from our work with families in temporary accommodation that the effects of homelessness on children are harsh and long lasting.

“Children in so-called “temporary” accommodation live alongside strangers in insecure accommodation for large parts of their childhood.

“Sometimes it’s noisy when they should be asleep, they have little or no space for play or for homework and normal childhood experiences such as having friends over is impossible.

“The joy of childhood is taken from them. That isn’t right. Investing in more affordable homes should be a priority for any government that values family life.“

A Government spokesperson said: “No child should ever be without a roof over their head and we are working to ensure all families have a safe place to stay.

“If anyone believes they have been placed in unsuitable accommodation, we urge them to exercise their right to request a review.

“We have invested £1.2bn to tackle all types of homelessness, including funding a team of specialist advisors which has, in two years, helped LAs to reduce the number of families in B&B accommodation for more than six weeks by 28%.”

Polly Neate, chief executive of Shelter, said: “This report is a damning indictment of the government’s catastrophic failure to address the housing emergency. It should act as a wake-up call to the new government that is it failing to deal with the homelessness that is robbing hundreds of thousands of children of a decent childhood.

“No child should be spending months if not years living in a converted shipping container, a dodgy old office block or an emergency B&B. But a cocktail of punitive welfare policies, a woeful lack of social homes and wildly expensive private rents mean this is frighteningly commonplace.

“We constantly hear from struggling families forced to accept unsuitable, and sometimes downright dangerous accommodation because they have nowhere else to go. The devastating impact this has on a child’s development and wellbeing cannot be overstated.

“The message to this government should be clear: to stop more children from suffering we must urgently increase housing benefit so families can at least afford the basic cost of rent, alongside a long-term commitment to build 3 million more social homes. This is the only way to guarantee the next generation can have the stability of a safe roof over their head.”