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Steve Robbins, regional head of operations in Scotland for Mears, said the number of people seeking asylum support in Glasgow "grew exponentially overnight" when the lockdown began - and the firm . According to Mears 2017 accounts, the value of its long term assets add up to 237 million. At the time of writing, Mears is still working in Brighton. Concerns have been raised about a letter sent to thousands of asylum seekers in Glasgow advising them not to take part in policed protests during the . In January 2019 Mears won its biggest deal yet 1.15 billion worth of asylum housing contracts with the Home Office. Full Time - Permanent - Up to 37,000, depending on experience - Plus company van & fuel card! As of 2017, Mears has the ability to borrow 170 million through those deals if required, plus a new 30 million pot it can access for its new scheme to buy property before selling them onto to long-term developers (see the housing section). And in July, the council made a number of U-turns to bring community engagement, neighbourhood employment, and repairs management teams back in-house to council control. We have been renting a considerable number of properties to Asylum seekers ever since the home office contracts began. Mears Group, which is being paid by the Home Office to tend to asylum seekers, denied the claims. Grandview, MO Hassle free, 1 to 5 year leases. McCabe insisted: all holidays I have been on, I have paid for. There he became a managing director and head of industrial sector. Nurses came to the hotels once every week or two weeks; the Mears man only once or twice a week no one is in the hotels. Many of these are Terraquests customers. Mears Group. It had hoped to take over the contract to run much of the Ministry of Defences main accommodation estate in 2018, after Carillion went spectacularly bust. Aurora, Illinois. If you feel you have skills and experience needed, please apply via the link or contact Beth on or 07514315737, quoting the job reference number. One notable point: from September 2012 until 2016, Sercos Scottish asylum housing was largely sub-contracted to another scandal-hit company, Orchard & Shipman. The properties here are to be demolished at a later time. Use the branch locator to find a contact number for your local branch. Click on the heading below to go straight to a section: Mears is one of the UKs biggest maintenance and repairs contractors, working on over 650,000 homes for councils and housing associations. The overcharging came from another company sub-contracted by Mears but the councils audit review found that it had not been picked up because of insufficient control mechanisms operated by Mears. The councils report also acknowledged a general break down in trust between the council and Mears. TECH: A Guide to the Politics and Philosophy of Technology. However, a potential worry for Mears is that its business model depends on winning new maintenance or care contracts every year. This was slightly down on the previous year but overall Mears has grown quickly. I clean my own room here, nobody cleans our rooms in some of the hotels. Contact Us Book Your Ride Today. According to the Scottish Herald, Mears had just secured substantial concessions in its housing repairs contract with the council costing the authority some 25m, while a report from the councils own auditors, accountants Scott-Moncrieff said councillors had not had full facts before deciding not to re-tender the deal. An SNP councillor then asked the Commissioner to investigate whether McCabe had failed in not declaring his personal friendship with managing director Willie Docherty. But whereas G4S or Capita have profited from the sell-off of national services, Mears has thrived in the smaller and less visible world of local government privatisation. NE4 8SR However, staff turnover remains, in Mears words, unsustainable. Mears Group recognise our people as our greatest asset. Telephone: 020 7346 1134 Mears Global Luxury Transportation. Founded in 1996, Mears is . They told me they were paying in this hotel 150 for every person every week. Asylum housing tenants simply do not complain, and are often frightened about challenging any official, including their landlord. The finance director, C.M. However, there were still instances of appalling care. He then moved to Mears in 2013. It finally turned a very small profit on home care in 2017, after it had closed a fifth of its branches, mostly in the north of England. Click here to contact us if you have any further information about the YourMK partnership or Mears activities in Milton Keynes. Complaints in Parliament and in the media. In 2017 it had 345 housing apprentices and 224 care apprentices. I visited two of the houses where, despite the fact that communal areas were really dirty, there was no evidence of recent cleaning (the visitation log mentioned cleaning on 8 October 2019). At. Find out about call charges. We have asked our external auditors to investigate fully, as is right, to establish if the allegation has any basis and will act accordingly., A Mears spokesperson said: Mears does not in any way recognise these claims and are not aware of any audit being undertaken within the council. To contact the LAASLO team, pleaseemail asylum@newcastle.gov.uk. These contracts involve providing housing for thousands of asylum seekers who have been dispersed to those areas by the Home Office while they apply for refugee status. This is a slippery accounting concept that appears when one company buys another for more than the value of its assets at the time of purchase (see a fuller explanation here). i So-called net debt, which financial analysts calculate by subtracting a companys cash and other easy-to-sell (liquid) assets from the total value of the debts it owes to banks, lenders, suppliers and other third parties. Here the food is not bad sometimes but very small portions. Lettings and management services included. In addition, Mears stated in a June 2018 investor presentation that a key priority is to also achieve Registered Provider status in Scotland. At the time of writing, the top five biggest stakes are held by investment funds: Most companies on the stock market have similar ownership profiles, with no single investor having close to a majority stake. Mears Housing Management is a successful business within Mears Group PLC, having grown in 5 years to a nationally based . (24-hour service for emergencies) Find out about call charges. Blogs. Dont worry we wont send you spam or share your email address with anyone. Presumably his experience will have helped with Mears bid for the new contract. When you join our team, you join a dynamic culture in which career development is encouraged, excellence is rewarded and diversity is valued. If you are contacting us regarding an asylum related issue, please do not use this form but make sure you use one of these email . Albermarle, North Carolina. Safe and Innovative Infrastructure Solutions. The energy industry makes modern life possible, but few realize how intertwined the electric power, pipeline, industrial and communications industries are in our daily lives. . Mears Living includes Plexus and Omega Housing and Mears Student Life. It has been like that for at least two months.. United Kingdom, Email: contact[at]corporatewatch.org Of course, these institutions are also big property owners and developers in their own right. As of 2017, the last year for which full financial results are available, Mears had not increased its levels of borrowing, even with its move into housing development rather than simply maintenance. Newham council have done little to remedy this & we continue to campaign. We provide and manage 17,000 homes for local and central Government and are also responsible for keeping 750,000 of all social housing in the UK in good repair. It also manages the National Planning Portal, which processes most of the UKs planning applications, and last year it bought rival outsourcer Mities social housing division. 14 Robertson Road, Easton, Bristol, BS5 6JY I have sued them as repairs are not carried out and rent is nearly 1000/month for council-owned properties that Mears have leased out. In the North East, Yorkshire and the Humber this contract is held by Mears. The same applies to the 94 million Mears currently estimates the housing businesses it has bought to be worth (this may have increased significantly with the purchase of Mities housing division in 2018). The Unity Centre in Glasgow and SYMAAG in Yorkshire are two groups actively supporting the struggle for decent housing for refugees. Scottsdale, AZ Collinsville, IL In another hotel near a small town, I talked to a church and a Methodist chapel and they were really good, bringing lots of things, toiletries etc. A spokesperson for Mears, which provides asylum seeker accommodation on behalf of the Home Office, said it is working to reduce the use of hotels "wherever possible". I have been in five different hotels. Placemaking also involves: blurring of the boundaries around social, affordable and private rented housing. In one house with six residents the landlord discovered that Mears workers had taken out a faulty boiler which was still under warranty and were in the process of doing checks to install a new boiler, leaving the residents without heating or hot water. She was moved to temporary accommodation which Housing4All and their Housing Rights Watch described on Twitter thus: Resident has been given temporary accommodation but there is currently no hot water or lights in the stairwell which is hazardous. If you have been granted refugee status, discretionary leave or humanitarian protection you will have similar rights to UK citizens, unless you have been granted discretionary leave with no recourse to public funds. See All Operating Companies. People who work in the hotels are often really rude to us. 033 0678 0277. A council spokesperson said Mears were unable to maintain the high standards we demand of our contractors, and also found elements of the contract commercially challenging.. We have a dedicated team of Local Authority Asylum Seeker Liaison Officers (LAASLOs) who can support you during the asylum process. Nearby Doncaster had begun a similar programme of inspections. Mears Group plc ( LON:MER ) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next three days. The Citizen reports council leader Peter Marland saying: The council received a whistleblowing allegation regarding spending on our housing repairs contract. But this crisis suggests that hotels are being used not just as overspill but as mainstream asylum housing. Executive Offices. A private "social housing" business, Mears Group, is about to become one of the UK's biggest refugee landlords, winning three ten year asylum accommodation contracts from the Home Office worth a total 1.15 billion. The landlords had an informal meeting and decided that they would prefer to give notice on their existing leases and get their properties back., Mears are totally incompetent, they claimed. Well send you a link to a feedback form. The business model is based on trying to undercut councils and social landlords in house services; and there is competition from several big national rivals, as well as smaller local companies. Unite the Union accused Mears of penny pinching stupidity, saying it should just pay for better dust masks that can cover beards. Click here to get in touch. One important trend in the UK housing world is the convergence of private and social sectors. To describe its new business approach overall, Mears likes to use a current regeneration buzzword Placemaking. While those seeking asylum have no choice over where in the UK they are dispersed to, we take great pride in the fact that so many refugees chose to settle here once their claim for asylum is determined. Mears will release its results for 2018 in March. Mears paid out 12 million in 2017, up from 11 million the year before. Corporate Watch Mears goodwill comes from their acquisitions of housing and care companies. Mears claim to provide rapid response repairs but all they do is avoid responsibility and sparing on repair costs. 75 talking about this. The Mears Group, which has the Home Office contract to house asylum seekers in Glasgow has been heavily criticised for its decision to move around 400 asylum seekers in Glasgow claiming it was . This experience, combined with our expertise in housing repairs and maintenance, means we are a strong partner for the government to deliver asylum accommodation and support that is safe, habitable and fit for purpose. Read more about our complaints process, here. 2 Friars Street This model of local public provision was attacked by Conservative and Labour governments from the 1980s on. Cllr Wood said Sheffield, too, was prioritising inspections of asylum houses and concentrating resources there.