Glasgow’s biggest social landlord has handed over more than three hundred homes in the city to help ease a homelessness crisis during the coronavirus pandemic.

Wheatley Group, GHA’s parent company, has provided the homes to the city council in Glasgow and dozens more across other areas where it has properties.

The homes are being used by the council to house people in temporary accommodation.

Wheatley has also provided another 150 of its homes, currently used as temporary accommodation, to be “flipped” to become permanent homes with tenancies.

The organisation was unable to let homes that became vacant due to lockdown restrictions, so decided to let the council use them to meet urgent demand.

Martin Armstrong, Wheatley Chief Executive, said: “We are determined to play our part in tackling homelessness and rough sleeping in Scotland.

“During the pandemic we made it a priority to support the most vulnerable people in our communities.

“We couldn’t let homes which became available due to government and public health lockdown restrictions but we could pass them over to local authorities to support people who found themselves homeless and that’s what we did.”

In addition to Glasgow, 73 homes have been provided to Dumfries and Galloway Council, 10 to Edinburgh City Council and four to West Lothian Council.

In March, Wheatley pledged 300 empty homes to councils to support homeless people, increasing its commitment to 400 three months later.

In a separate commitment to tackling homelessness, Wheatley pledged in May an extra 100 homes to Housing First, a scheme set up to help tackle rough sleeping. This was in addition to the 200 tenancies already pledged by the group.

Mr Armstrong added, “Everyone should have access to a warm, safe and secure home. We are committed to providing settled homes for those in need beyond the crisis.”

The group said it has also delivered more than 25,000 emergency food parcels to people at crisis point as a result of the pandemic through its EatWell service.

With the help of £350,000 funding from the Scottish Government, as well as donations from contractors and suppliers, Wheatley has invested more than £1m in the EatWell service.