End homeless hotel shame: how many times the council has carried out inspections

HOTELS used to accommodate homeless people have been inspected just six times in the last year.

The Glasgow Times End the Homeless Hotel Shame campaign has highlighted several cases of people exposing the unacceptable conditions people are expected to live in.

They have told of dirty rooms, filth-stained mattresses, bed bugs and vermin in a number of the hotels used by the council.

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The campaign, in partnership with Govan Law Centre, is calling on the council to implement a strict standards policy backed up by inspections to ensure the hotel owners are providing accommodation that is fit to live in.

One of the men we spoke to said he feared for people who are extremely vulnerable being put into these hotels.

The Glasgow Times has obtained details of the inspections under Freedom of Information laws.

We asked what standards the hotels paid for by the council must adhere to and were told there is no specific standards for hotels used for homeless people that differ to those used commercially by the public.

We were told: “The standards that the Council’s Environmental Health Team enforce for all relevant businesses within the city are as follows:  The Health & Safety at Work etc Act 1974 and associated regulations; and  The Food Safety Act 1990 and associated regulations.”

Given the number of complaints and the severity of the revelations around conditions, we asked how many times hotels had been subject to inspection.

Glasgow City Council's response was: “We can also confirm that the Council’s Environmental Health Team have carried out three Health and Safety Inspections and three Food Law inspections of hotels within the city used to accommodate homeless persons during the financial year 2023/2024.”

The council uses 30 hotels across the city and beyond to house the high number of homeless people who require emergency accommodation.

As of April this year, there were 1590 homeless people living in hotels paid for by the council.

From April 2023 to March 2024 the council booked out 324,604 hotel room nights to accommodate homeless people.

The End the homeless Hotel Shame campaign is calling for the hotel owners to be forced to improve the conditions of their properties and for the council to ensure a rigorous inspection regime is in place to give people a decent basic standard of accommodation at a time when they are at their most vulnerable.

A spokesperson for Glasgow City Council, said: “The hotels we use are privately run, commercial businesses and therefore our Health and Social Care Partnership has no statutory authority to impose inspections.

“However, hotels do positively co-operate when we request an inspection.

“We are in continuous dialogue with the main city hotels about the need for any inspections of the rooms the HSCP commission and hotels respond accordingly.”