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Charities have blamed Tory welfare cuts for a 40% surge in homelessness since David Cameron swept into Number 10.

Campaigners say shrinking payments under the benefit cap are partly to blame for a huge rise in families facing life on the streets.

Councils accepted 55,090 households as homeless between July 2014 and June this year - compared to 39,480 in the same period in 2009/10.

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And experts raised fears over a huge surge in families with children living in emergency B&Bs.

At the end of June there were 2,660 of these families, up 25% from 2,130 compared to the same day last year.

(Image: PA)

In total 66,980 households were living in temporary accommodation on June 30, a rise of 12% on the same day last year.

Shelter chief executive Campbell Robb said welfare cuts and a dramatic housing shortage are taking their toll.

"Deeper cuts to welfare will do no more than add fuel to the fire of this growing crisis," he added.

"The only way for the government to break the cycle of homelessness, is to invest in building homes that people on lower incomes can actually afford."

Homelessness fell for six year in a row under Labour, hitting its lowest rate in 2009 before the Coalition came to power.

How homelessness has risen again under the Tories Source: DCLG

In 1998, just after Tony Blair won a landslide, 105,000 households were losing their homes every year.

Now rates are rising again as the £26,000-a-year benefit cap, which is being lowered to £20,000 or £23,000 in London, takes its toll.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has condemned the cap for 'socially cleansing' poor families from pricy areas and has vowed MPs will fight it - despite opposition from his Shadow Cabinet .

A quarter more people had to be housed outside their local area compared to the same period last year - and 93% of them were from London.

Crisis chief executive Jon Sparkes said: "We cannot ignore the reality behind these numbers.

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"Thousands of people across the country are struggling to keep a roof over their heads in a housing market that is no longer fit for purpose, while cuts to housing benefit and homelessness services have left the safety net in tatters.

"We need housing benefit that actually covers the cost of renting, a much stronger focus on preventing homelessness, and a change in the law so that no one is forced to sleep rough."

Gavin Smart, deputy chief executive of the Chartered Institute of Housing, said the number of families with children in B&Bs has leaped 25% in just a year.

"This type of accommodation is often very poor quality and highly unsuitable, especially for families," he said.

(Image: Getty)

"There has also been a 25% rise in the number of households placed outside their local authority district, which may be down to the increasing cost of housing, especially in London."

Labour's shadow housing minister John Healy said: "Five years of failure on housing has helped fuel a rise in homelessness that should shame Ministers.

"David Cameron and George Osborne claim to head a one nation government but their decisions over the last five years have meant that increasing numbers of people don’t have a place to call home.

"One of the Labour government’s biggest successes was the huge reduction in homelessness. Under the Tories, that progress has gone into reverse.

"Tory Ministers urgently need to say what they’re going to do differently in the next five years to prevent another five years of failure on homelessness."

A Department for Communities and Local Government spokesman insisted homelessness is still less than half its peak under Labour in 2003/04.

She added: "We have made over £1bn available since 2010, to prevent and tackle homelessness and support vulnerable households.

"Our investment has help prevent almost a million households from becoming homeless."