![\"Susan](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/0_JS380537431.jpg\")
Susan Aitken photographed in the Reach office speaking on Planet Holyrood. Pic by Victoria Stewart, Reach Plc Staff<\/p>\nEXCLUSIVE: Susan Aitken also came out against the SNP Government freezing the council tax next year.Susan Aitken photographed in the Reach office speaking on Planet Holyrood. Pic by Victoria Stewart, Reach Plc Staff<\/p>\n
The leader of Glasgow council has warned job losses and service cuts may be needed to tackle the city\u2019s refugee homelessness crisis.<\/a><\/p>\n Susan Aitken also called for other Scottish councils to take more responsibility for housing asylum seekers<\/a>.<\/p>\n She also said she is against the SNP Government freezing the council tax ahead of the Holyrood election<\/a>.<\/p>\n The SNP-led council is facing a \u00a366m overspend on homelessness due to a surge in refugees applying for temporary housing.<\/p>\n Senior council figures believe the Home Office policy of moving refugees out of asylum hotels once they have been given leave to remain in the UK is to blame.<\/p>\n Many of the refugees move out of the hotels with nowhere to go and end up declaring themselves homeless in Glasgow.<\/p>\n READ MORE: Left-wing politicians must speak up on how to fix immigration system, says Anas Sarwar<\/a>READ MORE: John Swinney meets Donald Trump in White House Oval Office to press for Scotch whisky tariff reform<\/a><\/p>\n Holyrood\u2019s liberal homelessness laws also allow people from across the UK with no connection to Glasgow to apply for temporary digs in the city.<\/p>\n In an interview with the Record’s Planet Holyrood podcast, Aitken branded Reform UK leader Nigel Farage a \u201cracist\u201d who is stirring up division over asylum policy.<\/p>\n She also said the \u00a366m bill will be landed on Glaswegians unless there is a Home Office rethink:<\/p>\n \u201cThere is no question that we would need to look quite deeply right across our services to see where we could find savings, and savings mean inevitably that we are not able to deliver as much as we could previously.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe other side of that, of course, is that we might have to put charges up, which we never like having to do as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked about higher charges, job losses and service cuts, she said: \u201cIt is our fear. It is the potential we are looking at.\u201d<\/p>\n Aitken criticised the governments in London and Edinburgh, but she was more scathing about the Labour administration:<\/p>\n \u201cWe are saying to both governments this is not sustainable. It is urgent. We need your help. We need you to step in on this.<\/p>\n \u201cTo the UK Government particularly, we are saying \u2018you need to change your approach\u2019. This policy is failing. It is failing the people who are made homeless. It is failing refugees.\u201d<\/p>\n Glasgow has for decades been a safe haven for asylum seekers, with the city looking after thousands of people fleeing persecution.<\/p>\n Aitken, who said asylum seekers are not to blame for the housing emergency in the city, said of whether other local authorities should be pulling their weight:<\/p>\n \u201cYes, I do think that a wee bit. I would like to see other local authorities step up more.<\/p>\n \u201cI would like to see the spread of asylum seekers and then subsequently refugees across Scotland more evenly.\u201d<\/p>\n Aitken, Glasgow\u2019s longest serving council leader, also raised concerns about Holyrood legislation allowing a homeless person with no connection to the city to apply for short-term accommodation:<\/p>\n \u201cOurselves and Edinburgh argued at the time that that would have more of an effect on the more densely populated areas. And it has done.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not opposed to it, but the impact of it isn\u2019t symmetrical across Scotland.\u201d<\/p>\n Aitken said she had asked the Scottish Government to \u201cpause\u201d the legislation several times, but Ministers have been opposed to the move.<\/p>\n She instead wants extra resources from the Scottish Government: \u201cIf you can\u2019t pause it, you need to fund it.\u201d<\/p>\n Aitken said of a potential council tax freeze, which critics say starves town halls of resources: \u201cI would rather they didn\u2019t freeze the council tax.\u201d<\/p>\n She added: \u201cI don\u2019t think it is helpful for local authorities now.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Susan](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/1_JS380537172.jpg\")
Susan Aitken. Pic by Victoria Stewart, Reach Plc Staff<\/p>\n