Owners of Scots hotel where nine people died during lockdown see firm's value soar by £630k

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Owners of a controversial hotel where nine people died during lockdown have seen their firm’s value soar by nearly £630,000.

GDB Hotels benefitted from an influx of public cash for housing homeless people since the start of the pandemic nearly two years ago.

The company’s Alexander Thomson Hotel in Glasgow provided accommodation for the homeless and has come under heavy criticism.

Some nine deaths were reported at the Argyle Street building between April and December 2020, with eight believed to be related to drug abuse.The hotel, which is understood to have closed for refurbishment last month, received cash from Glasgow City Council.In the company accounts for the year ending March last year, GDB Hotels enjoyed a substantial rise in its net assets.The figure jumped from £1.47 million for 2019/20 to £2.1m for the following year.Last night homeless charity Shelter Scotland said providing temporary accommodation wasn’t only “costly” but can be a “nightmare” for those affected.The GDB Hotels group includes The Rennie MacIntosh Station Hotel on Glasgow’s Union Street, which the Homeless Project Scotland charity recently branded “not fit for humans to be in” after pest control experts dealt with a mice problem.That hotel also received public money to accommodate the homeless.Did you know you can keep up to date with the latest news by signing up to our daily newsletter?We send a morning and lunchtime newsletter covering the latest headlines every day.We also send coronavirus updates at 5pm on weekdays, and a round up of the week's must-read stories on Sunday afternoons.Signing up is simple, easy and free.You can pop your email address into the sign up box above, hit Subscribe and we'll do the rest.Alternatively, you can sign