The local authorities in Glasgow need to set up special ‘hit squads’ to solve the slum landlord problem in the Govanhill area of the city, according to Scottish Housing Minister Alex Neil.

At a Public Petitions Committee meeting, Anne Lear, director of Govanhill Housing Association (GHA), submitted a petition on behalf of GHA which requested that the Scottish Government begin an inquiry into the responsibilities of private landlords, below-standard social housing and the impact of slum living conditions on the health and well-being of residents.

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

This would enable council’s additional powers with one of them being to ensure landlords were complying with the registration scheme brought in to protect tenants from rogue landlords.

Lear believes the area should have some kind of special status, she said: “There is nowhere else in Scotland that has 1,200 unimproved properties, 75% at least of which are owned by the private sector and are not being regulated.”

Frank McAveety MSP, committee convener, said: “Govanhill presents a particular housing challenge and this is a petition on behalf of local residents asking for help from national and local government. The hope is that they will be listened to by the key decision-makers.”

The aim of the Public Petitions Committee meeting was to produce evidence and highlight key issues which the Local Government and Communities Committee may wish to consider further as part of its scrutiny of the Housing ( Scotland) Bill. It deals with policy objectives by modernising the regime for regulating social landlords (local-authority landlords and registered social landlords), reforming the right to buy social housing, and amending the law on registering private landlords, licensing houses in multiple occupation and dealing with disrepair in private housing.