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It is concerned about what it sees as unscrupulous practices by some retailers, which push storecards to young homeless people who cannot afford to pay the bills.

Anthony Lawton, chief executive of Centrepoint, said the charity is planning to talk to the Citizen's Advice Bureau and then target stores to fight the problem.

'We want leading stores to take a lead in the fight and cajole their peers into adopting better practices,' he said.

The charity recently conducted research that found storecard and catalogue firms often made less rigorous customer credit checks than credit card companies.