UK and Scottish government ministers are meeting in Glasgow as part of efforts to resolve a row over the proposed eviction of asylum seekers.

The Westminster government’s immigration minister, Caroline Nokes, will meet Holyrood’s cabinet secretary for communities, Aileen Campbell, after the private housing provider Serco, which is contracted by the Home Office, announced on Saturday that it would temporarily suspend its eviction plans.

Last week revelations that Serco planned to change the locks on the accommodation of hundreds of asylum seekers who had been told they could not stay in the UK led to public protests and legal action.

Charities working with some of those whom Serco intends to evict have argued that many are still pursuing their asylum cases and could yet have their rejections overturned.

Serco has strongly denied that it intends to make hundreds of people immediately homeless. It said it would give lock-change notices to “no more than six single adult males [in the first] week and 12 the next”.

However, it has also said it is still seeking a longer-term solution for 330 over-stayers in its accommodation, 230 of whom have been refused asylum and the remainder of whom have been granted leave to remain in the UK.

The Home Office made clear last week that anyone granted asylum would not be subject to Serco’s lock-change policy, but at a meeting with Glasgow city council on Tuesday Nokes was unable to guarantee that the policy would end.

The council leader, Susan Aitken, described the meeting as “constructive” and said: “While it is helpful that Serco has paused the lock-change programme, what we are seeking is an end to lock-changing regardless of the outcome of any imminent court actions.”

She said Nokes had agreed to allow the council to individually assess the asylum seekers affected by the policy. “There is currently little clarity about the actual status of the 330 people affected; therefore it is essential that Glasgow city council has the time and opportunity to carry out individual assessments for all of them and ensure that everyone gets the right support and outcome for their circumstances.”

The housing charity Shelter Scotland has filed papers at Glasgow sheriff court to try to prevent two tenants from being issued with Serco’s lock-change orders, while Govan Law Centre has lodged papers at the court of session in Edinburgh to establish the legal principles involved in the planned evictions.