Hotel bill to house homeless people in Glasgow rockets

The use of hotels, owned by private companies, has rocketed in the last year as the council struggles with a housing emergency in the city leaving it with “no alternative” but to find available space.

A freedom of information request has revealed the council has paid £122,641,880 to private operators in Glasgow in the last five years up to January 24 this year.

The Glasgow Times obtained a breakdown of the figures showing spending has more than doubled in the last three years alone.

In 2021/22 the council spent £16,320,680 on hotels and B&Bs. This year, 2024/25, the hotel owners have already been paid £36,122,088.

Since the UK Home Office began an accelerated asylum claim system there has been huge pressure on homeless services in the city.

Once someone gets a positive leave to remain decision they're required to leave their Home Office funded accommodation and many present to the council as homeless.

The streamlined process led to a 96% increase in homelessness applications in Glasgow from households who had been granted leave to remain.

Between 2022/23 it jumped from 1,300 applications to 2,600 applications in 2023/24.

The council breached its statutory duties under the unsuitable accommodation orders thousands of times last year and all were in hotels and B&Bs.

The Glasgow Times has been running the End the Homeless Hotel Shame campaign to highlight the conditions people are forced to endure.

READ NEXT: End the Homeless Hotel Shame

Councillor Allan Casey, City Convener for Homelessness, said: “We’re duty bound to find and provide emergency accommodation to those affected by homelessness. To be able to do this means the council has no option but to use a range of B&B and hotels in the city.

“It’s no secret that we are having to spend more and more on hotel and bed & breakfast use in our attempts to meet increasing demand and avoid people having to sleep rough.

“There is no alternative. We are in continual dialogue with both Governments about these challenges and we continue to seek the additional resources necessary to address the challenges we are facing.”

READ NEXT: Number of rough sleeper in Glasgow this year rockets

The figure of how much has been paid out overall was requested by the Scottish Tenants Organisation.

Sean Clerkin, campaign co-ordinator, said: “Glasgow City Council has to use the money they give to these private operators as leverage to impose a strict policy on these private hotel operators to vastly improve conditions in these vile institutions for all homeless people and then gradually move away from funding these profiteers of human misery instead to invest the tens of millions of pound in building good public sector temporary accommodation for homeless people including halfway single sex accommodation for women to protect them from predatory sexual attacks and exploitation in these hellhole hotels.

“Handing over public monies by Glasgow City Council in such large sums to a few private companies without using the money as leverage to improve basic conditions for homeless people is a scandal and completely unacceptable.”