Cost of demolishing 'unsafe' India buildings in Glasgow could reach up to £1m

The cost of demolishing the unsafe India Buildings in Glasgow could reach up to £1m for the council, it has been claimed.

A council building expert admitted his team had no idea how bad the condition of the historic building was inside before reports emerged of the roof collapsing.

The demolition of the Bridge Street building kicked off in April.

Responding to questions about how it ended up in such a state, council official Ray Barlow said: “We had no idea what the internal condition of that building was. It was absolutely horrendous, which is why we had to unfortunately demolish it.”

Councillor Soryia Siddique, Labour, asked at what point could the council have prevented demolition.

Bailie Siddique said she understood it is costing the council £1m to raze the property and asked about recovery of the money.

Mr Barlow said the amount had not been finalised but it will be in the high hundreds of thousands and the local authority will speak to the owner about “cost recovery.”

Explaining there were long term defects, he added: “When my staff went up and looked down into the building there were floors missing over five storeys. That is long term.”

He said previously staff had reports of “bits of windows falling out” and the council dealt with the owner looking at it externally.

Mr Barlow said the emergency response was sparked after reports of the roof of the building starting to move from residents across the road in addition to the front wall moving.

He said staff then looked in the windows using hoists, which revealed the extent of the damage.

The India Buildings situation was discussed at this week’s council Economy, Housing, Transport and Regeneration City Policy Committee.

It was discussed as part of an annual performance report on the council’s building standards team.

Between 2023 to 2024 the team received 2,846 building warrant applications with the construction work representing more than £600m.

The team are on target with seven out of 10 key performance indicators.

As well as dealing with dangerous buildings, their work remit includes safety sports grounds, liquor licensing and temporary raised structures among other responsibilities.

The meeting heard how the team are impacted by a difficulty in recruiting enough staff.

A report presented to the committee also explained more about the impact of staff shortages.

It said: “The year proved challenging from a resourcing perspective and this has continued to affect performance. The service has re-advertised posts throughout the year with minimal success and continues to try and fill vacancies.

“The challenging resourcing picture is repeated nationally for Building Standards, where there are concerns over capacity within the system and a lack of candidates with the appropriate qualifications or experience.”