A NATIONAL charity has written to seven Lancashire MPs warning of a children's poverty and bed crisis.

Buttle UK said more than 7,000 under 16s in the county needed somewhere safe and comfortable to sleep at night.

Its chief executive Gerri McAndrew has written to Blackburn MP Kate Hollern, her Labour colleagues for Burnley and Hyndburn Julie Cooper and Graham Jones, Pendle Tory Andrew Stephenson and three other MPs on the issue.

Her letter asks them to work with the charity and local councils to provide grants to vulnerable families in the area in order to buy beds and help ease the crisis.

The latest figures show that in the Lancashire County Council area there 66,361 children living in poverty with 7,257 in need of a bed, third highest in England

In Blackburn with Darwen Borough there are 7,295 under-16s living in poverty, 21 per cent of the total compared to a national average of 16.8 per cent.

Ms McAndrew commented, “We expect every local authority to commit to ensuring that no child in their area will sleep without a bed of their own. In the 21st century this does not feel like an unreasonable expectation”