THE number of homeless households in temporary accommodation in Glasgow has increased in the last year.

Figures for July to September 2018 show there were 2145 households in temporary flats waiting for a permanent home.

It is an increase of 6% from the year before when there was 2021 and from 2016 when there was 1941 in temporary accommodation.

The latest figures however show a slight drop in homeless applications in the city down from 1403 to 1373 over the year.

Homelessness and housing campaigners said “alarm bells should be ringing” with the latest statistics.

Across Scotland Homelessness applications increased by almost 300 in a year to almost 18,500 between July and September last year.

Graeme Brown, director of Shelter said: ““These figures are bad news for anyone facing homelessness in Scotland and if alarm bells weren’t already ringing in Holyrood they should be now.

“Homelessness in Scotland continues to increase – with even more children in homeless temporary accommodation than last year and people having to stay longer in temporary accommodation with their lives in limbo.

“And with hundreds of breaches of the unsuitable accommodation order and households being turned away from temporary accommodation they are entitled to thousands of times, it is clear there is a housing emergency in Scotland.”

Labour said it was a “disgrace” and demanded action on the causes of homelessness and improved funding for services.

Pauling McNeill, Glasgow MSP and the party’s housing spokeswoman said: ““These figures are disgraceful, and should prompt hard questions inside the government.

“It is clear that the systematic problems that lead to homelessness are not being tackled, and that’s before we consider the impact of the SNPs £1.5billion worth of cuts to councils since 2011.

“These cuts threaten vital services and mean people fall through the cracks because they aren’t getting the support they need.”