EXCLUSIVE: Glasgow council released the full year figure amid concerns the city faces a £66m black hole caused by rising homelessness.
There are record numbers of homeless people in Glasgow and across Scotland(Image: Tony Nicoletti/Daily Record)
Nearly 1,000 refugees granted leave to remain in other parts of the UK declared themselves homeless in Glasgow last year. Glasgow council released the full year figure amid concerns the city faces a £66m black hole caused by rising homelessness.
The UK Government has been accused of being responsible for the surge over the move to close asylum hotels. When asylum seekers have their applications to stay in the UK approved, refugees can apply to a council for temporary accommodation.
Separate legislation going back decades means that refugees granted leave to remain outside Scotland in other parts of the UK can ask for homeless assistance north of the border. In 2025, 988 refugees outside Scotland asked for homeless help in Glasgow, up from 765 in 2023, but down on the previous year.
The three year total is 3090, with many of the refugees coming from greater London or Belfast. A breakdown shows the numbers were negligible in the first half of 2023, with one month witnessing a single homeless application from refugees in other parts of the UK.
But they started to soar at the end of the year and applications regularly exceeded 100 a month. The number of refugees from other parts of the UK provided with temporary accommodation last year stood at 939 as part of a three year total of 2600.
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Susan Aitken, the SNP leader of Glasgow council, said: “Although there has been a modest reduction between 2024 and 2025, this is still a very significant pressure – driven by Home Office policies which, all over the UK, are forcing refugees granted leave to remain into homelessness. Given the Government’s stated aim is to make more asylum decisions more quickly, in order to end the use of hotels to house asylum seekers – there is absolutely no indication that this is about to stop.”
Critics believe Scotland’s liberal housing laws are also to blame for the soaring numbers.
Not only can refugees in England declare themselves homeless in Scotland, but MSPs abolished the ‘priority need’ test over a decade ago.
Labour MSP Mark Griffin said: “The SNP must wake up to the housing emergency unfolding in Glasgow. The SNP has piled pressure on communities by cutting Glasgow Council’s budget, raiding millions from affordable housing funding and letting housebuilding levels plummet.
“It’s clear the status quo is no longer working for Glasgow – we need all levels of government to work together to deliver a fair and sustainable system, and to deliver the housing the city needs.”
Tory MSP Meghan Gallacher said: “This confirms the SNP’s reckless decisions have made Glasgow in particular a magnet for asylum seekers.
“By axing the local connection rule and abolishing priority need, more people have decided to come to Scotland’s largest city.
“This is only exacerbating the housing emergency in Glasgow which is a direct result of the SNP’s failures over the last two decades.
“The SNP need to wake up to the reality facing many communities, show some common sense and reinstate these policies urgently.”