Glasgow City Council urged to donate £150,000 to fund to help residents in wake of tenement collapse

Glasgow City Council is being asked to donate £150,000 to a fund to help residents who are forced from their homes, in the wake of a Pollokshields tenement collapse.

Dozens of people have been displaced for almost two months after a fire-damaged building on the corner of Albert Drive and Kenmure Street caved in.

Homes either side of the B-listed tenement had to be evacuated, and local councillor Jon Molyneux said residents had “their lives turned upside down overnight”.

Homes evacuated after fire damaged tenement collapses STV News

“Being unable to access their essential possessions is affecting their work, their studies and their health,” he added.

Cllr Molyneux is now calling on the council to put £150,000 into a Lord Provost’s fund for vulnerable citizens. He wants the cash to be ringfenced to help those who are unable to return home for “an extended period due to action taken by the council under emergency powers”.

The Glasgow Greens co-leader is set to present a motion to a full council meeting next week asking councillors to back his suggestion. If it is approved, the council would ask the fund’s trustees to make awards of £2,000 to qualifying households.

They would also be asked to consider whether the fund could be used to gather and distribute donations from citizens.

The tenement on the corner of Kenmure Street and Albert Drive in 2019, before the fire. Google Maps

The building in Pollokshields, which had been empty since a fire in 2020, is subject to a notice from the council’s building standards department, which prohibits access to the tenement blocks on either side.

Cllr Molyneux said: “Two months on, insurance companies are no closer to agreeing liability and that too is causing huge financial stress.

“By stepping up and supporting people’s immediate needs, we can ensure Glasgow is a humanitarian council. I believe that when our citizens are forced into such distressing circumstances, through no fault of their own, then the local state should have their backs.

“I have lived through the aftermath of a tenement fire myself, so I have some appreciation of how even dealing with everyday administrative tasks can become a nightmare.

“I don’t want anyone who ever finds themselves in a similar situation to feel abandoned, so I sincerely hope all councillors will unite behind this motion.”

His motion notes similar incidents in the recent past have affected residents at “the India Buildings in Laurieston, the Trinity Building in Park Circus and Lancefield Quay in Anderston, as well as the previous fires at Albert Cross”.

When access to homes is restricted, people can lose access to “vital documentation, medication, work files or other essential items”, he added.

“This can result in loss of earnings, disruption to studies, immigration problems, health worries and added stress, as well as meaning that people have to make expensive ‘repurchase’ of items, often while insurance positions are unclear and they may not be eligible for other sources of support such as the Scottish Welfare Fund.”

Cllr Molyneux said there is “precedent for providing direct financial support following major fires, such as Sauchiehall Street”.

He also wants a review of the existing arrangements for supporting residents and small businesses in these circumstances to ensure the council and other agencies are “as responsive and supportive as they can be within their powers”.