THE Scottish Government should be giving more resources to councils to end homelessness, Jeremy Corbyn said during a visit to Glasgow.

The Labour UK leader said he was “shocked” to hear of a homeless woman dying on the streets and wants action to tackle high private sector rents.

Mr Corbyn was meeting community groups, including foodbanks, anti-austerity campaigners and housing campaigners in Govan.

In an interview with the Evening Times, Mr Corbyn backed the campaign to save Whitehill Pool and warned the loss of community facilities was the price of austerity and cuts to councils.

He said: “The Scottish Government has decided to make cuts of around £230 million in local government expenditure and obviously that plays on into each local authority so those campaigns, to stop Whitehill Pool being closed for example are bearing the brunt of it and this is what the price of austerity is.

"The price is that you lose public facilities and you have children not getting the support and care they need."

When told of the death of a woman in a tent in the East End Mr Corbyn said it was all too common across the UK.

He said: “I’m shocked and appalled. In parliament just before Christmas a man died outside the doors of Parliament at Westminster tube station.

"Over the past two years there’s been at least 2000 recorded deaths of homeless people across the UK.

"I can’t give an accurate figure of the number of people sleeping rough but I think we’re talking maybe 15,000 across the UK.

"Think of that figure of the number who have died on the streets. It is simply wrong. And we ought to and must invest enough in society to ensure rough sleeping ends."

He welcomed the Scottish Government's commitment to ending rough sleeping but said it has to do more.

He added: "There’s plenty doing their best to support homeless people, but surely the principle has to be that people should be housed properly in the first place."

The Labour leader said he would regulate the private rented sector, which he said is increasing the risk of homelessness.

He added: “What we are proposing is a lot of investment into social housing because that is the safest and most secure form of housing and for the private sector a long term tenancies, security of tenure and prevention of retaliatory evictions, where people have complained about either the condition or the behaviour of the landlord and end up being evicted."