Scottish and UK government decisions have left homelessness services in Glasgow facing a crisis and a budget shortfall of £16m.

Unless there is cash coming from Westminster or Holyrood to mitigate the impact, the city is expecting a rise in rough sleeping and destitution.

The Scottish Government has removed the ‘no local connection’ rule that meant councils could turn away people from other areas if they didn’t have a valid connection.

It means people coming to Glasgow from anywhere in Scotland need to be accommodated out of the city’s budget.

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The other policy is the UK Home Office and asylum seeker housing provider, Mears, moving people out of accommodation quicker if they get a positive decision, meaning they need housing.

The use of hotels and B&Bs has gone up from 240 people to more than 700 at the same time as £11.689m in covid money has been removed from the budget.

Pat Togher, HSCP assistant chief officer, said: “The decision of Mears and the Home Office to accelerate the numbers of people being moved out of accommodation following successful asylum claims has resulted in additional pressure of circa 600 households.

“During the first weeks of May this demand has translated into 50 presentations per week seeking homelessness emergency accommodation and resulted in hotel and B&B accommodation numbers increasing to almost 800 with spot purchasing of higher cost hotels now becoming the norm in order to sustain statutory duties.”

Since the no local connection rule was removed there have been 98 households assessed in Glasgow in a six-month period, with 75 accommodated at a cost of more than a quarter of a million pounds.

It is expected that over the course of this year, the cost will be £1.6m as more people seek help.

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Mr Togher, said: “It is also important to note that no new funding was provided to the HSCP to reflect the additional statutory duty and that the increased pressures on the supply of settled lets is likely to result in longer stays in B&B accommodation.”

Allan Casey, Glasgow City Council homelessness convenor said he has had talks with the Scottish Government housing minister to ask for funding but that no commitment has yet been made.

He said: “We anticipated a huge increase in people accessing Glasgow services.

“Additional funding should be made available.

“We are very aware there is no impact of Glasgow citizens going elsewhere, it’s all one way.”

A spokesperson for Glasgow City Council, said: “The cumulative impact of the cost-of-living crisis and rampant inflation, changes to the asylum system, and increased numbers of people coming to Glasgow in search of accommodation, work and access to services is creating unprecedented pressures on homelessness services.

“This is exacerbated by the numbers of available homes decreasing.  We remain in continual dialogue with both Governments about the impact of these pressures and to seek further resources to address them.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Local connection requirements have been recognised as a barrier to accessing homelessness services which is why we removed them, allowing people to access support, take advantage of job opportunities or simply to have a fresh start. We know there are housing pressures in some local authorities but that, ultimately, they share our ambition of ending homelessness.

“We continue to engage with local authorities and evaluate the impact of the changes to local connection rules. Recent engagement has shown a pattern of people moving across the country as the changes intended rather than increased presentations to only one area but we will keep this under review."

A Home Office spokesperson said: “We have a statutory duty to ensure asylum seekers have access to suitable long-term accommodation and we work with local authorities to ensure pressures on local services are minimised.

“The number of people arriving in the UK who require accommodation has reached record levels and has put our asylum system under incredible strain. 

“This is why we are taking action to reduce the asylum backlog and stopping small boats crossings through the Illegal Migration Bill.”