The proportion of homeless people forced to sleep on friends' floors or on relatives' sofas is higher in Craven than a city like Sheffield, a report says today.

New research revealed that so-called "sofa surfing" is more common in rural areas than in cities and urban locations.

The figures are contained in a report by Sheffield Hallam University for homeless charity Crisis and the Countryside Agency.

In it Craven is compared with Sheffield and London. Of those people in Craven interviewed in the research, 65 per cent had only ever stayed with friends and relatives.

Crisis is now calling on the Government to improve support to friends and relatives of homeless people to compensate them for their help.

The report, Your Place, Not Mine, Homeless People Staying with Family and Friends, reveals a world where people sleep on floors for months as an alternative to rough sleeping.

Most are uncounted and unacknowledged by homelessness statistics.

And "sofa surfing" is a more common experience in rural areas such as Craven and among younger people, the report adds.

Margaret Clark, of the Countryside Agency, said: "Vulnerable people in rural areas are also at risk. They face additional problems in accessing the services they need. Emergency accommodation, supported housing and advice are hard to come by."

Shaks Ghosh, Crisis chief executive, said: "We've known for some time there are people hidden from view living in this way, but we're now able to see just how common an experience sofa surfing is."

Josh Sutton, Craven's housing homelessness and advice manager, said there had been an increase in the number of people presented as homeless - from eight to 22 in October.

About 23 per cent said friends and family could no longer accept them and 13 per cent reported that parents could no longer accommodate them.

He said Craven had emergency cover as well as the nine flats - 11 beds - available for homeless people.

And there was also help available from Foundation Housing which had a base in Skipton, and provided temporary short term accommodation.

A spokesman for the Government's homelessness directorate said they were aware of the report and concerned about all types of homelessness, including hidden homelessness.