Homelessness is big business. Make no mistake about that.

That one of the biggest suppliers of flats and bedsits for the temporary homeless has been paid £16m gives you some idea of the scale of the enterprise.

City MP Caroline Lucas believes the city homelessness situation is in crisis. She and a group of doctors claim the state of emergency accommodation is directly affecting the health of those it is supposed to be protecting and could even

lead to deaths.

Baron Homes Corporation Ltd, which earned the above figure in four years, says it is providing a service to keep a roof over the heads of the city’s most vulnerable.

It claims that surrounding support services are the issue rather than the bricks and mortar of the accommodation.

Of course it is not the only company providing temporary accommodation.

But as the problem of homelessness grows, with 20,000, people on the city’s waiting list at present and austerity measures likely to swell this number it is surely time, as Ms Lucas says, to have a rounded look at what is being done to

provide decent accommodation and support services for the many who need them.

Some might baulk at the suggestion, in these days of cuts, that council’s should build their own homes.

But a sensible and rigorous system involving all parties in this desperate situation, including homeless groups, is needed so that this growing problem can be tackled.

Soaring house prices, deprivation, and welfare cuts contribute to this crisis but strong monitoring of the quality of housing and, to be fair, the way it is treated by residents, must be part of a holistic approach.