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LIVING conditions at the so-called Bellgrove Hotel are nothing short of heartbreaking.

People there have no quality of life yet businessmen are profiting from their misery, pocketing millions of pounds of housing benefit. It is reprehensible.

That is why our council stopped referring people to the Bellgrove Hotel in 2010. Our social workers have tried to work with residents to help them make positive decisions about living circumstances but have met a less than accommodating approach from the owners.

This is a problem that has no easy answers. But the answer is not to cut the budget for vital housing services such as homelessness.

This year and last year Glasgow had its funding cut by £153million by the SNP Government. That money should have been used for services such as homelessness.

We closed our big establishments similar to the Bellgrove Hotel years ago, using money from the last Labour Scottish government and council funds.

That approach worked but we can only do more with the support of the Scottish Government.