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More than a fifth of people who sleep rough in England are migrants, with most of them coming from the European Union according to new figures.

Government statistics show that the total number of vagrants in the country climbed by 15 per cent to 4,134 last year. Of these, 714 were EU nationals.

The figures were obtained in a so-called single night snapshot. When the same exercise was conducted in 2014, the total number of homeless people was 2,744, meaning that the homeless figure appears to have risen by 51 per cent.

In London, the influx of EU migrants to the UK was even more evident, with 37 per cent of rough sleepers coming from Eastern European states including Romania, Poland and Lithuania.

Englands homelessness problem is concentrated in the capital, which accounts for 23 per cent of the total number of rough sleepers.

Opposition politicians have sought to criticise the government for the problem but blame has also been attributed to the EUs open border policy. Wealthy cities like London have acted as a magnet to those from poorer states. Under EU agreements, all EU citizens have the right to travel to any EU state signed up to the scheme.

Current trends show the population of the UK as a whole grows by about one million every three years. The official population of the UK now stands at about 65 million, a rise of 5 million in a decade.

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European Union Migrants Fuel Rise In England's Vagrancy Problem - Heat Street