Providing housing 'leaves city with £110m black hole'

GLASGOW City Council finance bosses are warning of a £110million black hole in the local authority’s coffers driven largely by the cost of housing asylum seekers.

- By Ben Borland

The desperate forecast will be put before councillors at a crunch meeting at the City Chambers on Thursday in a report by Robert Emmott, pictured, executive director of financial services. He warns that savings of at least 12% will be required, which would mean further job losses and cuts to services.

The city’s top bean-counter concludes: “The latest projections forecast a budget gap of £109.7m for 2026/28, before any Council Tax increase with £65.7m of this relating to pressures associated with homelessness.”

The SNP-run council has asked the Home Office for a pause in dispersal of new arrivals to the city from October, and also an end to the requirement to house asylum seekers moving to Glasgow from elsewhere in the UK.