THE Scottish Government has been accused of failing to address the plight of the homeless as new figures showed more than 4400 children living in temporary accommodation.

Statistics revealed there were 2661 families with children in temporary accommodation at the end of September last year.

While the figure is down 19% on the previous year, there were 4419 children living in temporary accommodation - although this total was 18% lower than in September 2012.

There were 10,283 households in temporary accommodation at the end of September 2013, with Labour claiming this was 2000 more than when the SNP came to power in 2007.

The party's social justice spokeswoman Jackie Baillie said: "The Scottish Government has slashed the housing budget and Margaret Burgess, the minister for housing, has been missing in action since she took up her post."

Ms Baillie said a national strategy was needed to help councils return thousands of inhabitable social housing properties back to use "so that less people are reliant on bedsits or hotels".

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said: "These figures show we are continuing to work closely with local authorities to prevent homelessness before it happens."

Graeme Brown, director of the housing charity Shelter Scotland, said: "The root cause of homelessness is a housing crisis which has seen the housing safety net stripped apart after decades of under-investment."