Council faces £66m black hole after increase in spending

GLASGOW City Council is putting up homeless refugees in 50 hotels as it struggles to cope with a housing emergency.

- BY PAUL HUTCHEON

The crisis-hit local authority also confirmed a near 260 per cent rise in refugees being placed in hotels and B&Bs.

The surge led SNP council leader Susan Aitken to warn the Home Office that Glasgow is at "breaking point".

The council faces a £66million funding black hole after a rise in spending on temporary accommodation for refugees.

Town hall figures believe the Home Office policy of emptying asylum seeker hotels is creating a homelessness crisis for refugees granted leave to remain.

In a letter to then Home Secretary Yvette Cooper in March, Aitken said: "I am concerned that there remains a lack of appreciation of the scale of the pressures we are facing in Glasgow, seen most acutely in the levels of homelessness among people with recent decisions but also in the tens of millions of additional pounds that this is costing our homelessness service annually."

She added: "The pressure the system is now under is unprecedented and cannot continue. We are at breaking point.