THE WAR against slum landlords in Glasgow who let vulnerable families live in squalor is to be stepped up.

The pledge by city council bosses comes after the Evening Times revealed yesterday how a cockroach-infested flat in Govanhill - where 11 Slovakian Roma were living - had to be shut down because it was in such a disgusting state.

£400 a month for insect-ridden flat THE Evening Times visited another rented property under investigation by council bosses on the city's South Side. At first glance the conditions in this private flat were at least as bad as those we saw at the Allison Street slum closed down by the council. There is structural damage to the building and it is obvious it has not been redecorated for several years. Instead, there are random patches of paint on the roof and wallpaper peeling from the walls, leaving crevices for insects to breed. The neglected flat was home to a family of 10 - including babies. Like the family in Allison Street, the people living here said they had no access to running hot water. Ageing electrical equipment was evident throughout the house and the family had to keep a heater running full-blast constantly to keep at least one room warm. Firebrats, inch-long crawling insects that thrive in warm spaces, slithered from behind pictures hanging on the walls and made their way across every surface. In the space of five minutes, the father killed half a dozen of them on the wall and a nearby heater to keep them away from his sleeping baby. But even as he reached forward to crush another insect, he refused to criticise the state of the home that costs him nearly £400 a month, fearing he would be made homeless by the rogue landlord. He said: "I can't talk about him. "If he tells us to leave, my family have nowhere to go." A friend who was visiting the Roma family at the time said: "The real tragedy is that they feel those conditions are better than they had before they came to Glasgow. "On top of that, they had no chance of a job where they were. "No-one would consider employing them and they feel that at least here they have a chance to make a living for themselves and their family."

The top-floor property, one of around 60 owned by Mohammed Aslam, had no heating or hot water, was damp and had a toilet next to the cooker. The council put a closure order on the property.

Today deputy council leader Jim Coleman said he believed hundreds of people could be living in similar horrendous conditions.

And he warned it was only a matter of time before a disaster happened.

Mr Coleman has called a series of top-level meetings in the city council and is to press the Scottish Government for a change in the law.

Because the seven children and four adults living in the flat in Allison Street were all from the same family, Mr Aslam did not have to register the property as a House in Multiple Occupation (HMO).

That requires landlords to follow a set of stringent rules to ensure the house or flat is in good condition.

But people from the same family can live in a property without the landlord having to apply for an HMO licence - and the council has limited power to intervene.

Mr Coleman believes many people from the former Eastern Bloc country are living in appalling conditions because of ruthless landlords.

He said: "We have heard horrendous stories, including one of a landlord who does his own gas repairs and could blow the place up.

"People are living in absolute squalor and in a lot of these properties the gas is dangerous.

"It's only a matter of time before some disaster happens and we cannot sit back and say we didn't have the power to do anything.

"There are huge issues for the city and we need to find better ways of dealing with this.

"I have a series of meetings lined up about this subject and we will be raising it with the Scottish Government because it's an issue which is not going to go away."

Mr Coleman said a large number of Slovakian Roma arrived in the city some time ago and they were now being followed by a second wave of Romanian Roma.

He added: "We've spent more than 12 months working with the Slovaks, engaging them, putting extra resources into Govanhill and getting them into the education system.

"It's working well because a lot of Slovak Roma are starting to speak to housing associations.

"However, the Romanians can only claim limited benefits.

"They have no skills and cannot speak English and come from a culture where they are the bottom of the heap.

"They are part of the European Union, so are free to come to this country - but when they do they are getting exploited because a lot are tied in with gang masters."