Video: Homeless charity Crisis says more people sleeping rough

Leslie Morphy, Chief Executive of homeless charity Crisis, says they are experiencing a growth in people needing to use their services over Christmas, especially among young people.

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Speaking from a residential centre for the homeless, Morphy explained: "These services are important all year round but Christmas is obviously a particularly difficult time for people because other services are closed. So this gives people, while those services are closed, another place to go."

"However, I think we'd also say that we'd like to see Crisis at Christmas as an end in itself, we'd really like to see it as a gateway, so people can be given the kind of help and support during this seven, eight day period that will help them to move on in the future."

She went on to say: "There are more people who are homeless this year than there were last year and indeed there were the year before. So unfortunately, we're in a growth industry, we wish we weren't but we are."