An update from Glasgow City Council to the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee of the Scottish Parliament has shown increasing numbers of children stuck in temporary accommodation when compared to June 2024.  

Latest figures reveal that as of February 2025, 3,503 children are living in temporary accommodation in Glasgow. This compares with 2,679 children stuck in temporary accommodation across all of Wales in December. 

Glasgow is the second city in Scotland to have revealed such devastating figures after it was found that 3,600 children in Edinburgh are facing the same harmful situation.  

This comes as new research shows the devastating impact unsuitable temporary accommodation is having on Scotland’s children. Titled In Their Own Words: Children’s Experience in Temporary Accommodation, children spoke out about witnessing violence, vermin, isolation, ill health and financial penalties - simply because their family could not find a home without the help of the local authority.

Shelter Scotland director, Alison Watson, said:  “It is the devastating reality that 3,503 children in Glasgow are trapped in, often unsuitable, temporary accommodation.  

“The situation in Wales is also stark with the latest statistics revealing 2,679 children without a permanent home. However, this represents a slightly improving picture in Wales, while here in Scotland things continue to spiral out of control. 

“The Scottish Government is always keen to highlight comparisons with the rest of the UK when it suits them – but as Glasgow is the second city to reveal the sheer scale of the housing emergency, this should be a wake-up call to all levels of government.  

“It is outrageous that there are significantly more children waking up in Glasgow without a permanent home than facing the same situation in the entirety of Wales, which is fighting its own housing emergency.  

“We warned two years in a row that cuts to the housing budget would result in increased numbers of children in temporary accommodation that we know exposes children to violence, vermin and isolation - yet the Scottish Government chose to make the cuts anyway.  This increase is a direct consequence of that.  

“We can’t tackle child poverty without tackling child homelessness. And we can’t tackle child homelessness without more social homes where they are most needed.”