WE'D all like to think of slum landlords as a thing of the past.

For decades they plagued this city, renting out their filthy, unsanitary, overcrowded flats.

The great slum clearances - and now hated high-rises with their indoor plumbing - should have put an end to them.

But, alas, they did not. Even today, in 2013, there remain appalling conditions in some private rented accomodation.

There can be nowhere where this is more true than Govanhill, surely now Scotland's most deprived neighbourhood.

Here private landlords earned the area the name "Ground Zero" with their run-down flats and unkempt backcourts and closes.

Often they rent tiny spaces to entire families new migrants - including impoverished Roma.

So we should all welcome an initiative from Glasgow City Council that should rid us of this scourge - without repeating the mistakes of previous slum clearances.

The council is looking for £32m from the Scottish Government to buy up 13 blocks of flats in Govanhill and hand them over to the local housing association.

It will fix the homes and then offer them to those who need them most for reasonable rents. This plan is a positive move for the city.