Campaigners have called out Prince William over his planned homelessness project, calling it performative and arguing it detracts from the real causes of the problem.

Anti-monarchy campaign Republic has said the project - set to be launched on Monday - is another PR stunt aimed at protecting the royals from criticism, saying homelessness is a contentious political issue.

Republic's CEO, Graham Smith, said today:

"William is cynically wading into a politically contentious issue - in doing so he is distracting attention from the real problem."

"This is clearly not a serious project. It lacks funding, it lacks clarity and it rests on a fundamental misunderstanding of the issue."

"Homelessness is the result of government policy and lack of investment, it isn’t something that can be resolved by charity or royal patronage."

"It is also, in part, the result of economic inequality, something represented by the super-rich royals who live in multiple palatial homes."

"The last thing we need is for William to get involved in this issue, a man who has three huge homes and a vast estate gifted to him by the state."

"It is crass and hypocritical of William to get involved in this issue, given the excessive wealth we gift him, now he is Duke of Cornwall."

"The Duchy is a public asset, the property of the Crown, it is not a private estate. We allow him to take a personal income of £22m a year from land that should be in public hands, an income that should instead be spent on public services."

"If William wants to help tackle homelessness, he should surrender his publicly funded income and directly challenge the government. Anything else is just performative concern."