The two men were discovered outside our office in Etongate, Windsor Road, at 8am yesterday in a sheltered area. This is the first time anyone has been seen sleeping rough there.

Both of the men said they had been in a desperate situation and different circumstances had led them to the area.

One of the men, who appeared to be in his 20s and did not want to be named, said he had been homeless for just two days and was going to the town centre to seek help from the charity Slough Homeless Our Concern (SHOC) in Burlington Road.

He said: “I can’t go on sleeping like this. I couldn’t find anywhere else.”

The other man said he had been homeless in Slough for eight years and claimed other rough sleepers had taken priority.

He said: “I’ve lived in Slough all my life and I’m 39-years-old.

“I don’t own anything, I don’t have any benefits, no job and I’m English.”

Official figures from 2016 estimated that there are 25 people sleeping rough in Slough, eight more than the previous year and 17 more than four years ago.

However, SHOC founder Mandy McGuire believes the number is “at least double that”.

She said: “Things are awful, for want of a better word.

“Rough sleeping has increased and if you are finding people outside your office it shows you how bad the problem is.”

In the first three quarters of 2016 to September, there were 330 homeless applications in the town, of which just 162 were accepted. Only the accepted applicants receive help.

Applications were rejected on the basis that applicants were either deemed not homeless, not priority need, or intentionally homeless.

Mrs McGuire added: “The problem is rising quicker than anyone knows what to do with. There’s not enough affordable housing in Slough to get everyone off the streets.”

The concerns of the SHOC founder were echoed by vicar Michael Cotterell of St Paul’s Church in Stoke Road.

He said: “There is never enough being done.

“Slough is generally a very wealthy area and we can afford to help these people. Not helping them will not make the problem go away, it will only make it worse.”

“We are building problems for the future where there will be more social disintegration.

“Spending money to help these people is actually an investment.”

The vicar also stressed the importance of better mental health care.

He said: “If we helped people with mental health problems earlier on we would not have these problems.”

Slough Borough Council are providing a night shelter until the end of March, and on Tuesday a 12-bedroom emergency shelter was opened in Langley in a bid to ease the problem.