The scale of homelessness in Glasgow sees the council spend almost three times as much on hotels as it does on temporary furnished flats.

Official figures show that £9.4m was spent last year on temporary accommodation for homeless people.

Meanwhile, hotel owners were paid more than £27m to provide emergency accommodation for people.

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Despite there being more than four times the number of people in temporary accommodation (7371) than in hotels the council pays out far more to hotel owners than social landlords.

The number of homeless people in B&Bs and hotels in Glasgow has been rising steadily.

On June 1 there were 1634 people in hotels and B&Bs. On January 1, this year there were 1390.

The council has a policy of wanting to end the use of hotels and B&Bs for homeless people but the level of demand is so great it has had to ask for even more rooms.

Without hotels and B&Bs there would be more than 1600 people facing rough sleeping.

The quality of accommodation in some of the hotels, however, has been branded substandard, and appalling.

The Glasgow Times, with Govan Law Centre, has been running the End The Homeless Hotel Shame campaign to highlight the conditions and call for a tough inspection regime to force owners to improve their premises.

(Image: newsquest)

The figures also show an increase in the number of families in the hotels and the number of women.

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In April there were 52 families in this type of accommodation but by June it had increased to 66. There are 271 women living in the hotels.

The information was revealed to the Scottish Tenants Organisation under Freedom of Information.

Sean Clerkin, Campaign Co-ordinator for STO, said: “We need better quality accommodation. Women need their own space for emergency accommodation and be put into temporary accommodation quicker.”

The council said the use of B&Bs has been increased to meet a growing demand and prevent a rough sleeping.

A spokeswoman for Glasgow’s Health and Social Care Partnership said: “It’s not an insignificant feat that we are providing emergency and temporary accommodation to more than 7000 people when it is well documented that the housing system in Glasgow is experiencing significant pressure.

“There is no council housing in Glasgow, and we rely on Registered Social Landlords (RSLs) who have existing high demand for housing needs, to meet, as well as providing a solution to homelessness.

“We work well with these RSLs, and they are committed to providing us with accommodation but currently demand outstrips availability that means people are spending longer in, sometimes more costly, emergency and temporary accommodation than any of us would want.

“We declared a housing emergency last year due to the collective impact of pressures on the city in relation to housing and homelessness. We have expanded our use of bed and breakfast in an attempt to meet the current demands for homelessness assistance and avoid people having to sleep rough.”