The housing charity was granted permission last year for 37 mid-market rent flats at the old Inn on the Green premises on Greenhead Street. The roof of the former hotel was destroyed by fire in 2014.

Under the plans, LAR had hoped to retain the façade while demolishing the remainder of the building.

But LAR is now asking for permission to demolish the upper levels of the facade, with just the ground floor frontage retained.

A report submitted with the revised plan stated: “We are proposing the reduction in the scope of the work to the facade retention giving due regard to the very poor and unsafe condition of the building superstructure generally.

“Whilst our engineers have confirmed that it is technically feasible to retain the front elevation, they concur with our comments that from a safety perspective we cannot guarantee how the rest of the building will perform with the disturbance during the installation of the internal FRS (facade retention scheme) support elements along with the divorce demolition thereafter at the rear of the front elevation.”

Ann Leslie, chief executive of LAR, told our sister publication Scottish Housing News: “Our intention was always to retain the façade of Inn on the Green, it’s one of the things that attracted us to this landmark site in Glasgow and why we were so keen to bring this building back into use.

“Unfortunately, given the health and safety concerns which now exist due to the extensive fire damage to the building and passage of time, with resultant deterioration, the contractor we appointed to carry out the work has stated that not all of the façade retention works which we originally intended to do can be carried out safely.

“We intend to keep as much of the original façade as possible. While we are keen to retain the integrity of the building, our primary concern must be for those working on site, our staff and the general public.”