The headline statistics showing a 53 per cent rise in the number of families becoming homeless in Bradford over the past year are shocking.

Although the precise figures released by the Department for Communities and Local Government are disputed, the fact that there are a large number of families who will be without a home in Bradford at Christmas is disappointing - particularly at a time when the Government is claiming that nationally the number of new households becoming homeless is the lowest for more than 20 years.

There will always be some people who, for reasons of their own, consciously resist attempts by the authorities to solve the problem. But in the 21st century there should not be a growing number of people living rough - the bulk of them reportedly young people and those with mental health problems. And there should not still be children facing a bed-and-breakfast Christmas in temporary accommodation.

Combine the homelessness situation with recent figures showing that as many as 60 new-born babies die in Bradford every year because of poverty and it is clear that there is a long way to go to move the district out of the Victorian era and away from what, in some areas, is Dickensian squalor.

Meanwhile, individual readers who are touched by the plight of Bradford's homeless could do worse than contribute to the appeals on Page 3 of today's Telegraph & Argus for food parcels and hampers to help to make life a little more tolerable over the Christmas season for those less fortunate than themselves.