I tried to contact them but there was no reply for hours. At the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020 Mears moved about 350 asylum seekers from flats into hotels as a "temporary measure". In September, the Mears Group, an outsourcing company working in housing management and home care,became theUKs biggest refugee landlord, starting three 10-year asylum accommodation contracts from the Home Office worth a total 1.15 billion. Together they are worth 1.15 billion over ten years. The following voluntary sector organisations may be able to offer short term support while you consider your options. The solicitor can talk to you about legal aid and, if you are eligible, they will apply for this this so that you do not need to pay for their services. Mount Pleasant, MI c/o BASE Community Co-operative 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. We are honoured to be a recognised City of Sanctuary; part of a network of towns and cities throughout the country that are proud to be places of safety, and which include people seeking sanctuary fully in the lives of their communities. The storage may be used for marketing, analytics, and personalization of the site, such as storing your preferences. All of which could be very profitable for Mears and other private sector partners. After asylum seekers register their asylum claims at the Home Office in Croydon, they may stay with relatives or friends to await the outcome of their claims, signing at reporting centres, or (which happens to the vast majority) may be sent to IACs (Initial Accommodation Centres) and from there to asylum housing. When we investigated Mears in our Home Care Business report two years ago, we found the company appeared, on the whole, to be providing a better service than its for-profit rivals. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account. Women in particular never get shampoo and toiletries normal for guests. 1999-2018 F5 Networks. (24-hour service for emergencies) At. The National Audit Office (NAO) is currently also investigating the new asylum housing contracts; it is calling for evidence from asylum tenants and anyone involved in the contracts. Barnsley Council served an enforcement order on the two properties they had licensed as HMOs, demanding action on cleaning and repairs and giving Mears a time limit. Performed by ANSI and NACECertified NDE Specialists. United Kingdom, Email: contact[at]corporatewatch.org Albermarle, North Carolina. Privacy is important to us, so you have the option of disabling certain types of storage that may not be necessary for the basic functioning of the website. It has recently won the 1.15 billion Home Office contract to provide asylum seeker housing in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Yorkshire and the North East of England. Western Avenue There he became a managing director and head of industrial sector. This is reflected in the non-execs on the board, who are plugged in to these different parts of the regeneration industry. A massive 42% of staff left the company in 2017. NE4 8SR Alternatively you can write to us on: Migrant Help, Charlton House, Dour Street, Dover, CT16 1AT. So, what next for Mears? You cant just put them in the house and say get on with it like an average council tenant., Hundreds of asylum seekers in hotels in West Yorkshire. 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. In October a letter to then Home Office minister Victoria Atkins, signed by more than 100charities, warned that the new repairs reporting and advice system was causing needless suffering among those it is meant to protect, and called on the government to take urgent action to address the situation. Scottsdale, AZ Social housing specialist Mears Group PLC has been handed contracts worth 1bn from the UK government - a sizeable deal for a company with market capitalisation of less than 400mln. 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. Later, Morgan said he was suing the Labour Group over the issue. When you visit websites, they may store or retrieve data in your browser. The important statement from Cllr Paul Wood is the first time since 2012 that any council has expressed willingness to run an asylum housing contract for the Home Office. Mears paid out 12 million in 2017, up from 11 million the year before. Mears Group plc is a housing and social care provider. But it is far from certain the company can be trusted to provide decent homes for refugees. Currently Mears has failed to provide private housing in various parts of Yorkshire and the North East on time.This means that between 600 and 900 asylum seekers with many children, are stuck for months in Urban House hostel and hotels across West Yorkshire with no money at all. This storage is often necessary for the basic functionality of the website. Email: feedback.mearsliving@mearsgroup.co.uk. Mears also sees the overlap between its housing and care businesses as a good selling point looking to capitalise on an ageing population. Get in touch! To keep growing, Mears is expanding into new business lines, such as building its own housing developments and running its own regeneration schemes. It will take only 2 minutes to fill in. We will try to sort things out quickly and informally, but if you wish to log your issue as a formal complaint, we will investigate it accordingly. Ruth and the other mothers in a Sheffield Mears mother and toddler asylum house could not get through to Mears to fix their boiler, and faced a cold Christmas day without heating and hot water. If that reputation takes a hit, and local authorities and housing associations are more reluctant to use the company, Mears finances would look a lot less secure. I and others researching asylum housing warned the Home Office in 2018 in consultation events that separating off the reporting of repairs from the company that actually did them would slow down the response to repair requests and in emergency cases, create dangerous situations for asylum seeking families and so it proved. Telephone: 0808 801 0503. Park Inn: What do we know about asylum hotel at centre of Glasgow attack? These items are required to enable basic website functionality. www.mearsgroup.co.uk. For example, in recent developments in Luton and Basingstoke. But thanks to amendments to regulations made under the Blair government, companies have been able to use this to artificially inflate their overall worth, with Carillion again the most notorious example (click here for an in depth look at this by the Financial Times). Urban House is run by the Mears Group as part of a Home Office 10 year 1.15 billion contract to provide asylum housing,where people wait whilst their asylum claims are considered. If Mears does face financial difficulties in coming years and is unable to pay out the dividends its shareholders have become accustomed to, expect more disagreements between management and shareholders. Roy Irwin was the Chief Inspector for housing of the Audit Commission, the official body which audited local councils finances until it was scrapped in 2012, with its functions privatised. Blocking categories may impact your experience on the website. Mears is being hit by multiple scandals. More than 50 asylum seekers are in a hotel in Falkirk - and Aberdeen and Perth could house more. San Antonio, TX Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm. If you have a question, or a problem, we want to hear from you. Set up in 2015, it initially had the relatively straightforward aim of maintaining the councils existing stock. This product is licensed from F5 Networks. Founded in 1996, Mears is . We have a dedicated team of Local Authority Asylum Seeker Liaison Officers (LAASLOs) who can support you during the asylum process. We have a formal complaints process which aims to make sure all formal complaints are recorded, investigated and responded to fairly and in a timely manner. The company says it is still trying to grow its home care business but only with contracts that can provide clear and sustainable margins (in other words turn a profit). 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. We will discuss this point further below. The managing director is Willie Docherty, whose wife Sadie Docherty was Lord Provost of Glasgow between 2012 and 2017. However, the market has not been as profitable as Mears hoped. MEA House 112-114 Pilgrim Street Corporate Watch UK Benefits System. Back News; Subscribe. . In one hotel we all refused to eat the out-of-date sandwiches they gave us they were very smelly as we opened the packs. The finance director, C.M. Find out about how to pay your rent, your service charges, what to do if you fall into arrears, and benefits advice. Meanwhile, Mears top brass receive handsome rewards. A court case challenging the evictions is currently in progress. All of which could be very profitable for Mears and other private sector partners. In Sheffield, in October, I visited a family with a 7-year-old daughter, who had reported a boiler failure back in August, when Mears was taking over their house. It deals in information. Also in 2019, the charity Migrant Help won the 100 million contract to run a new Home Office system called Advice, Issue Reporting and Eligibility (AIRE) services, which includes the reporting of repairs in asylum housing. Don't let the name fool you: inside you'll find modern, cleanly decorated spaces that are ideal for student living, with different options to suit different tastes and needs. All rights reserved. I was really worried. Find out about call charges. Mears also offers a range of management services to other landlords, such as income management (i.e., rent collection), and emergency accommodation. 407-839-1570. Thank you very much for your comments and for your solidarity with Mears tenants in asylum housing In January 2019 Mears won its biggest deal yet 1.15 billion worth of asylum housing contracts with the Home Office. In June 2017 Mears made headlines when it tried to ban workers from having beards. National government determines immigration status and whether or not an asylum seeker is accepted. These items are required to enable basic website functionality. Following the money. However, the Mears board rejected SVMs attempt to replace him with Andy Hogarth, their preferred pick, saying board appointments should not be imposed on us by a single shareholder.. I emailed my emergency contact at Mears, who unsurprisingly was on holiday and unavailable. The crisis in the Mears contract in South Yorkshire and the North East has meant that there is very little housing for asylum seekers to go to from Urban House, and so many are being accommodated in hotels across West Yorkshire and Humberside. In December, I discovered April and her disabled family, forced into a totally unsuitable house in Rotherham by previous provider G4S and then ignored and neglected by Mears, left with a flooding living room and rats in the kitchen. Mears home care division provides care to 15,000 older and disabled people. For background on the previous contracts, and on the asylum housing system overall, see The UK Border Regime chapter 5. Merrimack, NH When the contracts start in September 2019, Mears will run asylum seeker housing in Scotland, Northern Ireland, and in Yorkshire, the Humber and the North-East of England. I thought they meant I was to be deported. The Local Authority is not responsible for placing or accommodating asylum seekers. I am a Mears tenant in Newham, London. NE1 6SQ. Mears is an outsourcing company working in two sectors: housing management, and home care. Dont worry we wont send you spam or share your email address with anyone. Holt was paid 285,000 for 2017. To start with, Mears has two affordable housing subsidiaries called Omega Housing and Plexus UK (First Project). Our customer contact centre is open 24/7 and can deal with all your initial enquiries or put you in touch with the right person to help. Image: Glasgow asylum housing run by previous sub-contractor Orchard & Shipman, whose old CEO now works at Mears. These items help the website operator understand how its website performs, how visitors interact with the site, and whether there may be technical issues. 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. These items are used to deliver advertising that is more relevant to you and your interests. Its revenues from this in 2017 were 134 million, down from 152 million the year before. Its housing with care schemes involve running sheltered housing with carers on call. In 2012, Mears bought out Morrison and took over the deal. For more information about the evidence sought by the NAO investigation, contact Asylum Matters. Arlington, Texas. For general enquiries contact our office at: Serco Limited Enterprise House . Asylum seekers need some care and support. Long term debt amounted to 51 million in 2017, down from 60 million the year before, all arranged through credit deals with Barclays and HSBC banks. Call Now To Reserve: 855-463-2776. . Mears have secured three of seven Home Office contracts that are collectively valued at 1.2 bn over the 10-year term. . For example, a website may provide you with local weather reports or traffic news by storing data about your current location. Contact Us Book Your Ride Today. These items are required to enable basic website functionality. 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Get help by phone if youre an asylum applicant or refugee and you need advice about the asylum process or adapting to life in the UK. Contribute to chinapedia/wikipedia.en development by creating an account on GitHub. I clean my own room here, nobody cleans our rooms in some of the hotels. Since September, there have been continual massive delays in the passing on of tenants requests for repairs from Migrant Help to Mears, which Migrant Help puts down to teething problems and high demand. Its businesses bring in around 900 million a year. The Guardian understands that the private housing provider Mears, which is subcontracted by the Home Office, has moved more than 300 people from mainly self-contained apartments into hotels over . The Commissioners investigation cleared McCabe, concluding that his actions did not amount to a contravention of the Councillors Code of Conduct. McCabe resigned from the council in January 2016, after 18 years as leader. They may also be used to limit the number of times you see an advertisement and measure the effectiveness of advertising campaigns. Mears business is above all about partnership, making joint ventures and contracts with other developers especially government bodies, councils, and housing associations. 407-423-5566. 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. They told me they were paying in this hotel 150 for every person every week. Added to this, Mears like Serco and the rest does not own a vast array of tangible assets such as buildings, land or equipment that it could sell or rent out in the event it needed to raise cash (but see the housing section, above, for details of Mears current attempts to change that). A separate investigation by Audit Scotland also concluded that the councils accounting of money payments in the Mears contract was not illegal. 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 necessary because of problems securing lets during the lockdown, which campaigners say had put the physical and mental health of asylum seekers at risk. They said they had not tracked where I was., As I left him Terry said, I think I am going to volunteer with a food bank, maybe I can persuade them to bring food for the children here.. Later that year, the chief executive of North Lanarkshire asked police to review separate claims that McCabe had been on a holiday to Turkey with another Mears executive, Steve Kelly. Press Enquiries. Serco and Clearsprings had been providing asylum housing since privatisation in 2012. We also found that while staff pay at Mears may have compared well to that at other major home care companies, it was still barely above minimum wage. (See our 2018 company profile of Mitie here.) We provide and manage 11,000 homes for local and central Government and are also responsible . Here the food is not bad sometimes but very small portions. They were paid 294,000 and 248,000. It told maintenance teams they needed to shave in order to wear appropriate dust masks effectively. Its flagship regeneration contract in Milton Keynes may be collapsing amid allegations of overcharging for repairs, while it has recently been dropped from a big repairs deal on its home turf of Gloucestershire. 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. The storage may be used for marketing, analytics, and personalization of the site, such as storing your preferences. Advertising networks usually place them with the website operators permission. Mears Foundation is partnering with Rotherham-based engineering company, AESSEAL to help asylum seekers temporarily housed in the town to communicate with their families and support groups.. You have rejected additional cookies. If you have a business or service related enquiry, you can email us, call us on 01304 203977. So what sort of company is Mears? (replace [at] with @). We have been renting a considerable number of properties to Asylum seekers ever since the home office contracts began. Today on the protest there were people stuck in these conditions for 5 months the Home Office contract says that Mears should keep people in Urban House only for a few weeks. Hello Boglarka At half past midnight on Christmas eve, Ruth, an asylum seeking mother with a 3-year-old child, rang me. Call Freephone: 0800 170 7008 or email: housingadvicecentre@newcastle.gov.uk Newcastle and Gateshead Clean Air Zone launches on Monday January 30. I spent two months in another hotel and they only cleaned my room two or three times. We're here to help and answer any questions you might have. To describe its new business approach overall, Mears likes to use a current regeneration buzzword Placemaking. In a major win for the Trump administration, the Supreme Court issued an order late Wednesday ending all injunctions that had blocked the White House's ban on asylum for anyone trying to enter the . Main picture: a Mears sponsored networking event with senior council and housing association managers. The contracts are for ten years., The contracts are part of the way in which the UK Government meets its duty to provide asylum for those seeking international protection in the UK., To deliver the contracts, Mears will draw on their outstanding 30 year track record of providing housing, housing maintenance and care services all across the UK, with a strong footprint in Scotland, Northern Ireland and the North East and Yorkshire.. None of these issues have stopped Clearsprings making good money from asylum housing. Both Serco and G4S complained of losing large sums of money on the previous deals. When you receive your notification please get in touch with the LAASLO team who will work with the Refugee Move on Team at Your Homes Newcastle, to help you to: Your housing provider may already have referred you into the LAASLO Team and someone from the team may contact you. In January 2015, North Lanarkshires Labour council hit a crisis, as one Labour councillor named Tommy Morgan was sacked from his role as chair of the audit and governance panel. (24-hour service for emergencies) Find out about call charges. In some cases, for example in Manchester or North Lanarkshire, Mears works through joint venture companies set up together with local authorities. Mears Group, which is being paid by the Home Office to tend to asylum seekers, denied the claims. Mears Group. So can Mears confidently expect the acquired businesses to bring in profits to justify the current valuations? . Blocking categories may impact your experience on the website. You can change your cookie settings at any time. According to the Milton Keynes Citizen, the council asked its auditors to investigate allegations that Mears had overcharged for repairs by up to 80,000 a month, and that 15 million of council money is currently unaccounted for by Mears. If it is out of hours (after 5.30pm or any time at a weekend) and you have nowhere to sleep please contact: 0191 278 7878 (Ask for the 'Emergency Homeless Officer'). UKVI are responsible for making a decision on your asylum claim and providing you with accommodation and financial support while you are waiting. Over 40% of Mears care workers left the company last year. Wed like to set additional cookies to understand how you use GOV.UK, remember your settings and improve government services. To find out how to apply for a council or other housing association home and to see properties that are available to rent please visitYHN, Private Rented Housing - For advice about renting a house privately you can contact the Private Rented Service at privaterented@newcastle.gov.uk. In the North East, Yorkshire and the Humber this contract is held by Mears. Mears makes much of being a high quality and socially responsibly company. Like those companies, Mears is operating in low margin businesses, facing competition for contracts that, for the most part, do not allow for significant amounts of profit to be made. Mears current Chief Operating Officer, John Taylor, was previously boss of scandal-hit housing company Orchard & Shipman when that company won the bid to run much of the previous Scottish asylum housing contract under Serco. But this crisis suggests that hotels are being used not just as overspill but as mainstream asylum housing. We provide affordable homes to renters and shared owners across the UK - from individuals in need of a temporary home, to families looking to put down roots in an area longer term. Annual salary: up to 32,500.00<br><br>Mears Housing Management are now looking to appoint a Welfare Operations Manager This is a Full Tim - 9 month fixed term contract, offering a Salary up to 32,500 + car + benefits Supporting key clients this is a hybrid role with 50% travel across the whole of Yorkshire & Humberside. Mears Group plc ( LON:MER ) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next three days. We relet properties with them on the promise from Chris that everything would . There is a Mears guy up in Newcastle who has told us he is responsible for 500 properties and has no record of the landlords. Another landlord with eight asylum houses on the G4S contract told me of longstanding tenants contacting him, frightened because Mears repair staff had been in a property and disconnected the fire alarms and smoke detectors and told tenants that someone would return to repair them. Safe and Innovative Infrastructure Solutions. We have some kids here from 5 to 8 years old. 2727 North Loop West The mears group have taken over the contract to house asylum seekers in Scotland. In an early announcement to the stock market, CEO David Miles said it had been a year of very good progress and that business had been in line with expectations. To increase margins, Mears is trying to break out into wider management roles. Mears first attempt to make money from old and disabled peoples need for care at home came in 2007 when it bought a home care company called Careforce. In Urban House, residents are means-tested to see whether they should be given support (furnished and serviced accommodation plus around 5 a day), and those eligible should, after a few weeks, be dispersed to asylum housing. Privacy is important to us, so you have the option of disabling certain types of storage that may not be necessary for the basic functioning of the website. North of England Refugee Service (NERS) This storage type usually doesnt collect information that identifies a visitor. 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. However, the education inspectorate Ofsted gave the Mears Learning division, which runs apprenticeships in the company, a negative rating of insufficient progress in its report in May 2018. A new contract to house the 5,000 or so asylum seekers resident in Glasgow with Mears Group has started, but while the new operator has announced it will not carry out "lock change" evictions . In West and South Yorkshire there was a 13 percent increase in asylum seekers in accommodation, from 5,198 to 5,865, in around 1,500 properties. Newham council have done little to remedy this & we continue to campaign. Is there a company you think we should be looking into? Murphy started his career as a Treasury civil servant in the 1980s before heading into the private sector working with German investment bank Dresdner Kleinwort. That puts Mears value on a par with companies such as lorry firm Eddie Stobart and Hotel Chocolat. The idea is that the acquired companies will in time generate wealth equivalent to the purchase price, so that should be recognised in the accounts. Collective protests now from people in Urban House IAC in Wakefield today 30 January, 10 am this morning 50 in peaceful protest at Urban House asylum hostel run by private company Mears. Overview. Operating income. For more details visit, To receive updates on homelessness prevention and financial inclusion related services, provision and changes linked to the Coronavirus / COVID-19 pandemic, please, subscribe to the Active Inclusion Newcastle information update by emailing. Call Asylum Help UK if youre an adult asylum seeker or the dependant of an adult asylum seeker. This division still makes up over three quarters of Mears housing business. You have accepted additional cookies. But it is run privately by a joint venture which is 75% owned by Terraquest. Despite our size, Mears remains a family company . Loveland, CO YourMK is, or was, Mears flagship regeneration project: a 1 billion partnership with Milton Keynes council to redevelop seven major estates over 15 years, affecting 8,500 homes.
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