The number of ill and disabled people becoming homeless has surged by 53 per cent as local councils are increasingly unable to provide them with support, new figures show.

According to government data, councils across the UK reported a 14 per cent rise in households which have at least one resident classed as suffering physical ill health or disability presenting as homeless - from 8,370 between April and June 2018 to 9,510 in the same period of this year.

And the number of sick and disabled people whose local council have been unable to help prevent or relieve their homelessness under the Homelessness Reduction Act (HRA) - and which are now are classed as priority need for housing - has surged from 580 to 890.

The HRA was implemented in April 2018 and placed new duties on housing authorities to intervene earlier to prevent or relieve homelessness.

But campaigners said councils were too often unable to fulfil this duty due to a lack of resources, as well as benefit changes, rent increases and the nationwide shortage of social housing.

The figures show that overall, the number of households found in priority need for housing – meaning they are vulnerable due to reasons such as ill health or disability, pregnancy or being under the threat of violence – has risen by 16 per cent.

Jon Sparkes, chief executive of Crisis, called for an increase in council funding to support vulnerable homeless people, saying: “This steep increase shows not only the scale of people requiring help, but the challenges that people already face, on top of having no place to call home.

“But councils have to be given the resources and ability to exercise this to its full potential and we need to see transformative measures taken, such as restoring housing benefit levels to cover the cost of true rent and an increase in social housing being built, or we risk seeing these numbers to continue to rise.”

Communities Secretary Rt Hon Robert Jenrick MP said: “We have a moral imperative to act to reduce homelessness. One homeless person is one too many and this government is taking action to protect those most at risk. Last year the number of homeless people sleeping rough fell by 2 percent.

The Stats: Homelessness in the UK Show all 10 1 /10 The Stats: Homelessness in the UK The Stats: Homelessness in the UK Sleeping rough up 165% from 2010 The total number of people counted or estimated to be sleeping rough on a single night in autumn 2018 was 4,677, up 2,909 people or 165% from the 2010 total of 1,768 Getty The Stats: Homelessness in the UK London rough sleepers up 13% The number of people sleeping rough increased by 146 or 13% in London since 2017 AFP/Getty The Stats: Homelessness in the UK London accounted for 27% of people sleeping rough in England London accounted for 27% of the total number of people sleeping rough in England. This is up from 24% of the England total in 2017 Getty The Stats: Homelessness in the UK 64% of rough sleeps UK nationals 64% were UK nationals, compared to 71% in 2017 AFP/Getty The Stats: Homelessness in the UK 14% of rough sleepers are women 14% of the people recorded sleeping rough were women, the same as in 2017 Getty The Stats: Homelessness in the UK 6% were aged 25 years or under, compared to 8% in 2017 AFP/Getty The Stats: Homelessness in the UK Thousands of families staying in temporary housing Almost 79,000 families were staying in temporary housing in the last three months of 2017 because they didn't have a permanent home, compared with 48,010 in the same period eight years before Getty The Stats: Homelessness in the UK Reduction in families living in temporary housing before Coalition government There had been a significant reduction in families living in such conditions before the Coalition government came into power, with the number having fallen by 52 per cent between 2004 and 2010 under the Labour government AFP/Getty The Stats: Homelessness in the UK Families staying in temporary has risen since But the figure has crept up in each of the past seven years, from 69,140 in the last quarter of 2015, to 75,740 in the same period in 2016 and 78,930 at the end of last year Getty The Stats: Homelessness in the UK Nearly 58,000 families accepted as homeless (2018) Nearly 58,000 families have been accepted as homeless by their local council in the past year (as of March 2018), equating to an increase of 8 per cent over the last five years Getty

“More people are getting the support they need to start rebuilding their lives – backed by £1.2bn in funding to reduce all forms of homelessness and rough sleeping, the duty we’ve placed on councils to provide vital help to those who need it, and our commitment to building the homes this country needs