A decision by the Home Office to speed up asylum claims will lead to a rise in single men sleeping rough on the streets in Glasgow it has been warned.

An emergency meeting of councillors has been called in the city today to discuss the implications for Glasgow’s already under-pressure homelessness services.

It could lead to more than a thousand extra homeless applications in the next three months and cost the city’s social services more than £50m.

To make matters worse the UK Government said it will not provide any cash to councils to help deal with the problems the plan will create.

The council expects around 2500 decisions to be made by the end of this year alone.

When a person receives a positive decision, they are given 28 days to leave the asylum seeker accommodation provided by Mears.

At that point, many end up making a homeless application, in Glasgow that has been 77%.

The council is warning that on current trends and extra 1,386 homelessness applications would be made by the end of December 2023.

If the services can't meet the demand it is expected many will be sleeping rough.

In a report to councillors, Anemarie O’Donnell, the council’s chief executive and Susanne Millar, chief officer of the HSCP, said:  “As a result of the Home Office decision, the number of people likely requiring homelessness assistance will increase and the HSCP’s Homelessness Service will find it exceedingly challenging to meet the additional demand.”

The report also said: "In April this year more than 600 positive decisions were made in Glasgow which required a major response from our asylum refugee team.

"This figure has since translated to increased homelessness applications and an increase in the use of hotel and B&B placements, particularly for single males."

The accelerated process applies to people from Afghanistan, Eritrea, Libya, Syria, and Yemen, who are more likely to get a positive decision.