- Ricky Bell backed a pause in new asylum seeker housing placements while Glasgow tackles rising homelessness costs.
- Glasgow City Council expects refugee-related costs to reach almost £75 million by 2027-28.
- Bell says neighbouring councils with empty homes should absorb more placements as Glasgow is carrying the burden.
Glasgow deputy leader Ricky Bell, the frontrunner to become council leader, has backed a pause in new asylum seeker housing placements while the city tries to manage rising homelessness costs and a heavy asylum accommodation load.
Glasgow City Council put the cost of addressing applications from refugees at £38 million in 2025-26. Officials forecast £56 million in 2026-27 and almost £75 million in 2027-28.
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Bell said the measure should give Glasgow breathing space, not end its role in accommodating people seeking protection. He wants placements spread more evenly across the Glasgow City Region, where some neighbouring councils have vacant homes.
The proposal is temporary. Bell described it as a circuit break while ministers decide whether to provide more money or change the rules governing the consequences for councils.
“I don’t think we need to stop altogether, but I think we need a pause to get us into a better situation to be able to cope with.”
Bell said around 4,500 asylum seekers were housed in Home Office accommodation in Glasgow. Refugee households accounted for 44% of the city’s homelessness applications, according to figures cited in the dispute.
Bell wants nearby councils to absorb more placements
Bell said Glasgow council taxpayers were “carrying the burden” of housing refugees for the “whole of Scotland.” His proposed redistribution would use available properties in authorities around the city while Glasgow residents remain in a housing queue.
“There are neighbouring authorities round about Glasgow who’ve got empty homes just now, and we’ve got a queue of people looking for homes. We could move some of those people and that would help the situation immediately.”
He said the arrangement should work for existing residents as well as people arriving in the country. “Let’s make sure we get this done properly so it’s a good experience for Glaswegians and for the people that are coming to the country,” Bell said.
Bell also called for the UK Government to meet the financial consequences of its asylum rules, or amend those rules.
“The government either needs to change the legislation or fund the outcomes of that legislation, and at the moment we're in the middle of that and they're doing neither.”
The council’s demand therefore has two parts: immediate relief from additional placements and a longer-term answer to the costs created when people leave the asylum system.
The pressure rises when asylum claims end
The Home Office houses asylum seekers while their claims are processed. After someone receives leave to remain, they may seek help from Glasgow’s local authority if they have nowhere to live.
The transition creates a second pressure point. Shirley-Anne Somerville said people seeking asylum have no right to local authority social housing in Scotland until they have been granted leave to remain and are recognised as refugees.
Nearly half of Glasgow’s 3,895 homelessness applications between April and September 2025 came from people with refugee status or leave to remain. Refugee households accounted for 44% of applications in that period.
Susan Aitken, Glasgow’s council leader, previously said the city had “run out” of temporary accommodation. Hotels became part of the response. She described that option as “very, very expensive.”
The council has also pointed to work already done to expand supply. More than 3,500 empty homes were brought back into “productive use” in recent years with NG Homes.
That work does not remove the difference between citywide housing demand and the locations used for asylum dispersal. Bell’s proposal is aimed at that geographical imbalance.
Glasgow’s figures combine a large caseload with rising costs
| Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| Refugee-related homelessness costs, 2024/25 | £27 million |
| Cost of addressing refugee applications, 2025-26 | £38 million |
| Forecast cost, 2026-27 | £56 million |
| Forecast cost, 2027-28 | Almost £75 million |
| Share of homelessness applications from refugee households | 44% |
| Homelessness applications, April to September 2025 | 3,895 |
| Asylum seekers in Home Office accommodation | Around 4,500 |
| Empty homes returned to “productive use” with NG Homes | More than 3,500 |
The figures describe different parts of the system. The £27 million figure covers refugee-related costs in 2024/25, while the later forecasts concern the council’s expected spending on refugee homelessness applications.
The application count covers six months. The accommodation figure is a current estimate for people housed through the Home Office system.
The dispute has split responsibility between three governments
Dr Zubir Ahmed, the Glasgow South West MP, wrote to the Home Secretary seeking “a circuit break on any further asylum accommodation in Glasgow” while provision is rebalanced across the country.
He said a pause would not mean Glasgow abandoning its role.
“Glasgow will continue to play its part. The city has a long record of welcoming people fleeing persecution and conflict, I would like that continue.”
Ahmed also said poorer communities should not receive a disproportionate share of asylum accommodation simply because housing costs less there.
Somerville, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice and Housing, assigned responsibility for asylum dispersal accommodation to the UK Home Office. She said the Scottish Government understood the pressure on Glasgow and blamed “UK Government's mismanagement of asylum policy.”
The Scottish Government has backed Glasgow’s call for adequate funding. It has also said it will make a “meaningful contribution” to the problem.
Glasgow wants clarity about that support. The funding question remains open.
The UK Government said it was working to move refugees from asylum accommodation and reduce the risk of homelessness. A spokesperson said the grace period had increased from 28 days to 42.
The government is also reducing the number of dispersal properties in Glasgow through planned hand-backs. At the same time, it is increasing accommodation elsewhere in Scotland.
Handbacks could reduce arrivals, but they will not settle the funding dispute
Those measures could lower the number of new asylum placements in Glasgow if additional properties open elsewhere. They would not, by themselves, resolve the council’s costs after people receive leave to remain and approach the local authority for homelessness assistance.
The distinction is central to the dispute. Handing back dispersal properties addresses the Home Office accommodation network. It does not automatically provide Glasgow with temporary accommodation, social housing or funding for refugee-related homelessness applications.
The Scottish Government told Holyrood on 9 September 2026 that it supported Glasgow’s call for adequate funding and identified “UK government asylum policy” as the root of the pressure on local authorities.
Ahmed’s letter was dated 14 September 2026. Bell’s comments were reported on 3 September 2026 and updated on 16 September 2026. Somerville’s position was also reported on 16 September 2026.
The political dispute has unfolded alongside false online claims linking some Glasgow housing stock to asylum accommodation. Those claims prompted a police probe into a deliberate tenement fire, while the council and a housing association said the allegations were false.
The immediate test will be whether planned hand-backs and expanded provision elsewhere give Glasgow room to manage its housing queue. The longer test is whether ministers agree who pays when asylum decisions move people from Home Office accommodation into the local homelessness system.
