THOUSANDS of refugees have claimed homelessness in Glasgow after travelling from other parts of the UK after Home Office support ended, it has been revealed.
The SNP-run local authority has defended a policy intended to end homelessness, which has led to thousands of refugees originally housed in English and Northern Irish cities to obtain shelter in the Scottish city.
Officials told Scotland on Sunday this has piled an extra £40 million of extra pressure on already stretched finances.
Glasgow City Council has urged the UK Government to “take responsibility”, while Labour has blamed the SNP’s devolved homelessness policy.
In April, the local authority urged the UK Government to stop sending asylum seekers to Scotland’s largest city as costs balloon.
Rules drawn up by Nicola Sturgeon, while she was deputy first minister, ended the “priority need” policy in 2012. This reserved entitlement for accommodation for homeless people in certain categories – such as women facing domestic abuse or families with children.
Now, anyone who has found themselves homeless through no fault of their own is entitled to support, unlike other parts of the UK.
Once asylum seekers have been granted the right to remain they have 56 days to move out of Home Office accommodation, with many forced to declare themselves homeless.
The previous Conservative government’s decision to streamline asylum decisions in a bid to cut the backlog in 2013 has also had an impact.
Prior to this, Glasgow City Council was spending an average of £1.6m on bed and breakfast accommodation for 730 homeless households. Only one in nine of those had recently been through the asylum process.
Now, there are 4386 households in temporary accommodation in Glasgow, including more than 3600 children. Of those, 1850 households are in bed and breakfast or hotel accommodation.
In 2023-24, Glasgow received 694 homeless applications from those who were granted leave to remain status in another city. This figure increased by 51.3% in 2024-25 to 1050 applications.
The latest statistics show 12.4% of Glasgow’s homelessness demand is from households who were granted leave to remain in other parts of the UK.
This includes refugees who were previously accommodated by the Home Office in cities including London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool and Belfast.
Since the decision to streamline applications for asylum by the Tories in 2023, Glasgow has received 2127 applications for homelessness support from households who have traveled from outside the city.
Officials say this has cost the council more than £40m, with no additional support from the Home Office.
Glasgow city council leader Susan Aitken (below) told Scotland on Sunday that attempts to meet with UK ministers to discuss the situation have been stonewalled, with Labour politicians having “declined or cancelled all meetings”.
“The main pressure on the city has come as a result of the asylum decisions made by the Home Office. They have a responsibility to the people they grant asylum to – and a responsibility to the communities that they ask to support new refugees,” Aitken told the newspaper.
“In terms of the impact on our homelessness services, we have already had support from the Scottish Government by way of additional resources for housebuilding and home acquisitions – but we will continue to discuss with ministers what homeless services look like in the face of exceptional demand.”
Glasgow Labour leader Rashid Hussain said there should be acknowledgement of “international instability” as well as “additional responsibilities expected of Scottish councils by the Scottish Government, which has a disproportionate financial impact on Glasgow”.
“All levels of government, whether UK, Scottish or local, have a duty to work together to address this matter,” he said.
“We will therefore work constructively with all parties in Glasgow City Council to engage with both the Scottish and UK governments to address this issue.”
A spokesperson for the UK Government said: “Although homelessness is a devolved matter, we are working right across the UK to give councils as much notice as possible of newly recognised refugees, have doubled the move on period to 56 days and have mobilised liaison officers to support asylum seekers in Glasgow City Council area.”
The Scottish Government said it acknowledged that Glasgow has come under “additional housing pressure” due to “significant levels of asylum decision making”.
“Asylum and immigration are reserved and UK government decisions about management of the asylum system are creating significant pressures across the UK,” a spokesperson said.
“We support the call from Glasgow City Council that the UK Government must provide adequate funding to support newly recognised refugees and communities.”
