Demands to clean up Glasgow's 'ghetto'

Mr Neil made the suggestion when MSPs were told of the squalid housing conditions in Govanhill.

Holyrood's public petitions committee heard descriptions of green slime dripping off close walls, rats roaming back greens and infestations of cockroaches and bedbugs.

The committee convener, Frank McAveety, who is also the local MSP, told how rubbish built up in the area meant one resident had 14 rats in their back garden.

Members of the committee have previously visited the area, where people from as many as 51 different ethnic groups live.

An SNP back-bencher, Anne McLaughlin, said she had been shocked by what they witnessed.

The Glasgow MSP said: "I'm not easily shocked – I've seen some terrible things – but I was absolutely horrified with what some people were having to put up with in terms of living conditions. It was an absolute disgrace."

Mr Neil said that both the Scottish Government and Glasgow City Council were determined to tackle the problems in Govanhill.

He said: "The kind of imaginative initiative I would like us to look at is the possibility, for example, of establishing a special hit squad."

Mr Neil suggested this could be used to make sure landlords are complying with a registration scheme which was brought in to try to protect tenants from rogue landlords. He added that this could help "break the back of this slum landlord problem in Govanhill".

The minister stated: "We actually need to clear them out and sort them out, and maybe we need a special hit squad."

Councillor Phil Braat, from Glasgow City Council, welcomed the idea and said: "I think hit squads should not only be looking at the fabric of the buildings, but at the whole overall social fabric of the community."

Mr Braat had attended the meeting in the absence of Steven Purcell, who had been due to give evidence before he suddenly stood down from his position.

Residents of Govanhill in the city's south side have been calling for an inquiry into private landlords, poor quality social housing and the impact of "slum" living conditions.

Anne Lear, director of Govanhill Housing Association, submitted the petition on behalf of residents two years ago amid reports of 15 to 25 people living in two-bedroom flats.

Ms Lear and Tom Warren, also of the Govanhill Residents Group, spoke at yesterday's meeting. Back in 2008, Ms Lear told MSPs that locals felt "the south-east area of Govanhill has become a ghetto for the migrant community".

Yesterday, Ms Lear said the area should have "some kind of special status". She told MSPs: "The reason we say that is because there is nowhere else in Scotland that has 1,200 unimproved properties, 75 per cent at least of which are owned by the private sector and are not being regulated."

Once linked to a proud industrial past – but now an area in terminal decline

THOUGH now synonymous with overcrowding, unemployment and rogue landlords, Govanhill's past is inextricably linked to Glasgow's proud industrial heritage. Built during the late 19th century by prominent ironmaster William Dixon, it housed employees of the blast furnaces he owned nearby.

Successive waves of migrant workers have been attracted to the area over the decades; initially Irish immigrants, then Pakistani and, most recently, Eastern Europeans, though the opportunities for employment dwindled during that time.

The area's recent decline was highlighted with the controversial closure of the local baths, but has deepened over the past five years. A walk through the area during a normal working day reveals the reality of Govanhill's problems: mattresses and furniture lie abandoned outside tenements; burst binbags and piles of magazines litter the streets; and groups of unemployed Eastern European men and youths are gathered on street corners talking to each other.

Local community workers blame rogue landlords, who live outside the community and are content to let vulnerable migrant workers live in conditions that would be unacceptable during Victorian times. For example, stories of families living without hot water for three years or having their electricity and heating cut off in midwinter have all been recorded.

Lorraine Barrie, a solicitor with the Govanhill Law Centre, which deals with all local residents' legal problems, said that Eastern European workers were being fooled into handing over cash to employment agencies in return for a job in the UK.

Brought over and placed in Govanhill's slum tenements, they find the job does not exist and so are trapped with no money or language skills and, in some cases, terrorised by landlords demanding rent with menaces.

Ms Barrie said: "There is a large amount of housing stock that has been left to rack and ruin, and that is the fault of rogue landlords."