IT’S often portrayed as an affluent area full of luxury hotels, picturesque cottages and wealthy pensioners enjoying a comfortable retirement.

But the New Forest and Gosport has more homeless people than many other parts of the UK, according to the biggest investigation into the problem ever carried out.

Housing charity Shelter says 890 people in the Forest are classed as homeless – one in every 201 of the population – while in Gosport, 533 residents are either sleeping rough or living in temporary accommodation.

Soaring rents, sky-high property prices and a four-year freeze on housing benefit are said to be among the reasons.

Brighton and Hove tops the list of homeless blackspots in the south east, with Gosport and the New Forest ranked fourth and eighth respectively.

Southampton and Winchester are ranked 34th and 54th respectively, with 485 (one in 524) and 98 residents without a permanent roof over their head.

Shelter’s chief executive, Polly Neate, said: “It’s shocking to think that today almost 28,000 people in the south east are waking up homeless.

“Some will have spent the night shivering on a cold pavement, with others crammed into a dingy hostel room with their children.”

In the New Forest four people are known to be sleeping rough, with a further 886 living in temporary accommodation.

Civic chiefs say attempts to address the issue by building more homes are being hindered by lack of funds and strict planning policies that aim to retain rural land in the district, much of which is a National Park.

Strong opposition to applications to build on greenfield sites in towns and villages is another factor.

Desmond Swayne, Tory MP for New Forest West, said the district included sites of special scientific interest and areas of outstanding natural beauty, which limited the number of opportunities to address the homes shortage.

He added: “The district council is currently drawing up its local plan to address the housing need but this is bound to be controversial.

“My mailbag is full of two types of representation – people who can’t find anywhere to live and people objecting to planning applications for new housing near them.

"Another difficulty is that developers want to address the top end of the market rather than affordable homes.”

Cllr Jill Cleary, New Forest District council’s cabinet member for housing, said: “We work hard to prevent homelessness happening in the first place and then to help anyone who does find themselves without a roof over their head.”

Julie Smith, head of housing at Gosport Borough Council, said: “We work with police and charities to regularly engage with rough sleepers and offer them support in finding temporary accommodation and dealing with addiction or mental health issues.

“For a small council, Gosport has an unusually large number of hostel places for homeless people, and recently spent £2m on refurbishing the properties.”