A former minister says figures that show Haringey now has the most homeless children in London should ‘shame us all’.

According to statistics released by former shadow Olympics minister Tessa Jowell there are more than 5,000 children without a home in the borough.

A total of 5,322 children live in temporary accommodation in Haringey, an 11.5 per cent increase on 4,771 two years ago.

Haringey has the most homeless children of any London borough by almost 500, with neighbouring Enfield coming in second at 4,879.

Ms Jowell said: “It’s heartbreaking to see so many children in Haringey growing up without the basic necessity of their own home. The fact that over 5,000 Haringey children are homeless is bad enough. But if you look at London as a whole, the situation should shame us all.

“Over 70,000 London children have no home. We are a city of billionaires and millionaires, yet child homelessness is disgracefully high and rising.

“Inequality is robbing these children of their childhood. We have to build more houses, we have to tackle the inequality in London and we have to start binding our city back together to build one London not two.”

In London overall, there are 72,100 children in temporary accommodation, equivalent to every single child in the city of Newcastle.

That figure represents an increase of 25 per cent in three years and ten per cent within the last year.

Of all the children in England living in temporary accommodation 80 per cent are in the capital and a child in London is five times more likely to be living in temporary accommodation than a child in the rest of England.

A Haringey Council spokesperson said: “We recognise that the number of children and families in temporary accommodation in Haringey is an issue of concern.

“While temporary accommodation figures have remained fairly stable overall, the combined impact of benefit reforms and spiralling costs in the private rented sector has led to an increase in the number of larger families being evicted by private landlords in recent times. This means more families have been forced into temporary accommodation rather than being able to secure an alternative home in the private sector.

“Wherever possible we have been supporting those at risk of eviction. We have also committed to building hundreds of new council homes, as well as working with developers on a range of affordable rent, shared ownership and private sale schemes across Haringey to help meet demand and support more families to get on the housing ladder.”