Swindon’s homelessness charities are bracing themselves for a difficult winter, as temperatures plummet and rough sleepers are left at risk on the streets.

It comes after Lord Bird, the founder of the Big Issue, said that England could be facing its worst homelessness crisis in two decades this year.

Swindon is no exception in facing these challenges, said Graeme Willis, the chief executive of local independent charity Threshold, which assists those faced with homelessness.

He said: “It is always a worry as winter approaches, because our direct access hostel is full all of the time. We don’t have empty rooms on a regular basis at all.

“As we are moving people out to move-on accommodation, those bed spaces are being filled almost instantly.”

Last month, the Adver revealed that the number of households in Swindon considered homeless has risen by 78 per cent over the last five years, and that the majority of those – 249 households in total – were temporarily accommodated in privately rented properties.

However, Graeme said, it is now the difficulty of paying for those private properties that is leaving many people without a home, with new benefits rules meaning a large swathe of properties have become unaffordable.

While previously benefits for accommodation were capped at the average cost of renting a property, that figure was slowly lowered, and is now disconnected from real-world costs altogether. Instead, the cap increases at the same rate as the consumer price index, which is lower than the rate of inflation for rental prices.

The introduction of Universal Credit has caused other problems, he said: “The other side of it is the sheer amount of time it takes to process the claims – you’re looking at an absolute minimum of six weeks. You don’t have a local office where you can talk to people, and the staff who deal with this are not equipped to deal with these claims – this is making the wait time even longer.”

The impact of a shortage of support services is also proving a challenge, not only in getting people with mental health issues off the street, but in keeping them off.

With cuts taking effect across the board, it will be a long winter ahead, Graeme said: “With changes to the benefits schemes, the introduction of universal credit, and reduction in social housing, you end up with a perfect storm of reduction in services, reduction in support input, and reduction in places to put people.”

To contact Threshold, call 01793 524661, or visit the website www.thl.org.uk.