Established 2005 Registered Charity No. 1110656

Scottish Charity Register No. SC043760

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Hostel bosses clean up

March 12 2014
HB from residents of a filthy, rat-infested hostel worth hundreds of thousands to its owners

The owners of one of Glasgow’s most notoriously run-down hostels have been condemned after it was revealed that they are making more than £1.5m each year. Ron Barr, 80, and Kenneth Gray, 69, make hundreds of thousands of pounds each from housing benefit paid for homeless people to stay in the Bellgrove Hotel in the city’s east end.

The tenants’ housing benefit equates to up to £199.25 each week. The figures were revealed last month in the Daily Record newspaper after an investigation by the GMB union. An undercover report by the paper also showed that the hostel was filthy, with urine and vomit left uncleaned in public areas and toilets.

The reporter found drug use was rife in the rat-infested hostel, which lacked basic facilities.

Glasgow City Council has stopped referring people to the facility, which is not subject to care regulations as it is listed as a hotel whose residents pay for their rooms with housing benefit.

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December 2024 – January 2025 : Solidarity

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