Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know.

My name's Linda Davies and I Commission Podcasts for BBC Sounds.

As you'd expect, at the BBC we make podcasts of the very highest quality featuring the most knowledgeable

experts and genuinely engaging voices. What you may not know is that the BBC

makes podcasts about all kinds of things like pop stars,

poltergeist, cricket, and conspiracy theories and that's just a few examples.

If you'd like to discover something a little bit unexpected, find your next podcast over at BBC Sounds.

Hello and welcome to a special podcast edition of More or Less with me Tim Harford.

If you listen to more or less on the radio in the UK this weekend

you will have heard Kate Lamble discussing how we count the number of rough sleepers on the streets of

the UK and you will have heard me promising more detail on that item.

So just for you on our podcast a special bonus extended version of Kate Lample's reporting.

We often hear numbers in the news about how many people are sleeping rough on the streets of

the UK.

Now we're going to talk about homelessness because the number of people recorded as homeless in England

now stands at... From the rough sleepers to the hostels, the capital's home to all kinds of people who need somewhere to live.

According to the government's latest figures there are more than 4.5,000 people

sleeping rough on England streets but the scourge of homelessness doesn't end here.

The latest official figures say that 4,700 people were sleeping in the streets in the autumn

of 2017.

And that got us thinking.

These statistics aren't just downloaded from some big database in the sky.

...