'Generous' refugee policy backfires as Glasgow City Council now faces £110m budget crisis
The SNP-led Glasgow City Council report said that the overspend would be £43million this year and £66million next year because of large numbers of people attracted by Scotland's most generous rules.
But a pause could slash costs by £60million.
Almost half the homelessness applications by refugees in the city are now made by people granted leave to remain in other parts of the UK who travelled north.
Council leader Susan Aitken said she was proud of Glasgow's key role in supporting asylum seekers and refugees but called for support from Whitehall to be 'transformed'.
The Scottish Conservatives said the budget crisis was of the SNP 's own making.
Glasgow Tory MSP Annie Wells said: 'Savage SNP cuts have resulted in Glasgow facing a housing emergency, yet the Nationalists running the city council have remained wedded to this generous policy.
'At a time when the city's roads are pothole-ridden and bins cannot be collected on time, hard-pressed Glaswegians will be wondering how this will be paid for even if isn't paused.
'It is time for the SNP-led council to ensure their housing policies are always delivering fairness and value for taxpayers, rather than costs spiralling out of control.'
Glasgow is the largest dispersal area in Scotland for asylum seekers, with around 4,500 in privately run accommodation while their claims are processed.
Once a claim is granted and a person allowed to stay in the UK, they have 56 days to find their own roof or present as homeless to the local council.
Besides dealing with those sent by the Home Office to Glasgow, the city has become a magnet for people granted refugee status south of the Border.
Councils in England only need to house those in 'priority need', such as families with children, but Scottish rules cover all the unintentionally homeless, including single men and women.
It has led to homeless refugees travelling to Glasgow from Belfast, Birmingham, London, Manchester and Liverpool.
Since 2022, when the last UK Government introduced a looser 'streamlined asylum process' to help clear the asylum claims backlog, the figures have shot up.
In 2023-24, Glasgow received 694 homelessness applications from newly approved refugees granted leave to remain outwith the city.
It increased more than 50 per cent the following year to 1,050 applications.
Since streamlining began, Glasgow has provided temporary digs to 2,127 households granted leave to remain elsewhere at a cost of £40.2million.
Last year the use of B&B accommodation doubled in the city, which declared a housing emergency in November 2023.
A report by finance chiefs being discussed by councillors on Thursday says homelessness is now the biggest strain on the city's £2.1billion budget after inflation.
It says the overspend on homelessness caused by 'those granted leave to remain' was £27million last year.
It added: 'Unless there is a change in policy, projections are that this will rise to £43 million in 2025/26 and £66 million in 2026/27.
'A pause in both dispersal to Glasgow and the requirement to house applicants from outwith Scotland would, if implemented from October 2025, reduce estimated costs to £36million in 2025/26 and then to £13million in 2026/27.'
Ms Aitken told the Herald newspaper: 'There has been a huge rise in the number of households that have gone through the asylum process elsewhere in the UK, only to find themselves homeless.
'Increasingly these new citizens are then drawn to Scotland and Glasgow by dint of the fact our homeless legislation is more robust than what is in place across the rest of the UK.
'I am proud of Glasgow's record in supporting refugees and I believe that migration has enhanced its 850-year story.
'However, the support the city gets from Whitehall must be transformed.'
With growing protests around the country over asylum seeker accommodation, including a former hotel in Falkirk on Saturday, she said the Home Office would be on a 'dangerous path' if it failed to 'step in and support councils on the frontline of this emergency'.
A UK Government spokeswoman said: 'Despite inheriting huge pressures on the asylum system, we are working to make sure individuals have the support they need following an asylum decision to help local authorities better plan their assistance with homelessness.
'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.'
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