The Charity Crisis at Christmas, to which the right hon. Member for Newham, North- East (Mr. Prentice) and the hon. Member for Cornwall, North (Mr. Pardoe) give an all-party flavour, is active only at this time of the year in raising funds for the agencies dealing with the single homeless and providing food and shelter over the period for several hundred single homeless people in central London.

Involved as I am in the Charity Crisis at Christmas, which concentrates simply on emergency provision at Christmas time and in raising money for the voluntary agencies which deal with single homelessness, I have constantly borne in on me how large is the problem and how fast it is growing.

Further to the question raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Woolwich (Mr. Cartwright), will the Prime Minister recognise that the Charity Crisis at Christmas had a record number of young homeless to deal with this Christmas at its soup kitchens and shelters?

I join the right hon. Gentleman in congratulating the Charity Crisis at Christmas, which is helped by an enormous number of people.

One of my early political mentors, Iain Macleod, was closely involved with the Charity Crisis at Christmas, which does the kind of work that many of us will be doing in our constituencies this Christmas.

Has the Minister had a chance to consider the tragic case outlined to him in a letter from me and the right hon. Member for Manchester, Wythenshawe (Mr. Morris), acting as trustees of the Charity Crisis, which acts for homeless people?

For the past decade I have been a trustee of the Charity Crisis, which is the largest charity dealing with homelessness in this country.

—went to the Charity Crisis.

By July 2002, research by the Charity Crisis, supported by the Home Office, found that 83 per cent of single homeless people were drug users.

In July 2002, research by the Charity Crisis found that 83 per cent.

The Charity Crisis believes that those speculators are unbalancing the housing market at a time of severe housing shortage.

This morning, I visited a homelessness project run by the Charity Crisis.

The Charity Crisis has an equally concerned view of these proposals.

The Charity Crisis collected considerable evidence that the homelessness service of local authorities does not always provide single people who are not in priority need with any meaningful assistance.

Tackling homelessness must remain a Government priority, so I welcome the fact that the spending review protected the £400 million of homelessness grant to local authorities and the voluntary sector, and the fact that the Government have prioritised help for single homeless people, providing £10 million to the Charity Crisis to help in its good work.

My amendment is suggested by the Charity Crisis.

Evidence given to us by the Charity Crisis, which has researched this issue, shows that when squatters who want to leave a squat present themselves to their local authority for help with housing, they are given a home-finder pack that at best contains a list of landlords, but since they have no money, the pack is of little help.

The Charity Crisis contacted me about Danny, a 34-year-old man who became homeless after a family break-up.

The Charity Crisis has found that 28% of homeless women formed an unwanted sexual partnership and 20% have engaged in sex work.

Figures supplied to me by the Charity Crisis show that in the financial year 2013-14 there were 927 households in Rochdale that made a homelessness application - nearly 1,000 in a small town like Rochdale.

Research from the Charity Crisis has shown that tackling single homelessness early could save the Government between £3,000 and £18,000 for each person they help.