Mears financial health at first glance appears solid. I dont know how families with children can exist. Presumably his experience will have helped with Mears bid for the new contract. A related business line is property acquisition funding. Main picture: a Mears sponsored networking event with senior council and housing association managers. Share on: Mears has been awarded three new government contracts to provide accommodation and support for asylum seekers. (24-hour service for emergencies) Find out about call charges. Find out about call charges. Park Inn: What do we know about asylum hotel at centre of Glasgow attack? What exactly does this mean in practice? Operating income. 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. Use the branch locator to find a contact number for your local branch. Failings in one branch saw people left without medicine and meals. Most of Mears contracts are with cash-strapped local authorities. Asylum seekers are also having to spend longer in asylum housing or hotels waiting for interviews and decisions. It explained what this means in a June 2018 investor presentation. Corporate Watch has looked into Mears past record to find how the strong sense of social responsibility its promotional materials boast plays out in practice. 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). But there is no evidence of any illegal wrongdoing. Alternatively, you can contact our Customer Success team using the Contact Us form on the page. 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.. opportunity that fits your companys profile, a representative will reach out to you for None of these issues have stopped Clearsprings making good money from asylum housing. Urban House is very unpopular with asylum seekers. The AASC contracts, which will replace the existing COMPASS contracts, have an approximate value of 4 billion and are for 10 years. The Home Office said: "The number of people arriving in the UK who require accommodation has reached record levels and has put our asylum system under incredible strain. But it is far from certain the company can be trusted to provide decent homes for refugees. So, what next for Mears? Borrowing too much from banks and other lenders is a major reason why construction and maintenance companies go bust, Carillion most recently. Telephone: 0808 801 0503 The Mears Housing Group, an outsourcing company working in housing management and home care, are the UK's biggest refugee landlord, who have three 10-year asylum accommodation contracts from the Home Office worth a total 1.15 billion from when the contracts started. 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.. 14 Robertson Road, Easton, Bristol, BS5 6JY He was very angry: Not only are people at risk, but if there is a fire, my insurance for the property is void. One asylum tenant with disconnected fire alarm and smoke detector told me, when I visited the house. They have no understanding of what asylum housing is about. We take anti-social behaviour very seriously. I went to see Terry, an asylum seeker from the Middle East, at his hotel in West Yorkshire. Good that you have a tenants organisation to stand up for your rights.It is always a bitter struggle against landlords like Mears.They are a huge company with massive resources and now a huge lucrative contract for asylum housing. Do you have information about Mears youd like to share with us? Of course, these institutions are also big property owners and developers in their own right. For general enquiries contact our office at: Serco Limited Enterprise House . 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. Starkville, MS. Mears is the premier provider of engineering, design and construction services to the pipeline and utility industries. In Scotland, Mears takes over from the previous manager, Serco, after a strong local campaign against that companys attempts to evict 300 refugees from their homes in Glasgow. Mears Group. UK Benefits System. Mears did not respond and three days later her ceiling collapsed. North of England Refugee Service (NERS) 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 . Loveland, CO In other Mears contract areas, similar examples were emerging. While in the IAC, asylum seekers, whether single or families, receive no money at all, simply a room and food. The Home Office is responsible for managing the dispersal, accommodation and support needs of asylum seekers while a decision on the asylum claim is made. In Belfast, the BBC reported in September that a woman asylum seeker reported water leaking into her kitchen. In summer 2017, we completed a 3 million refurbishment project to breathe new life into this lovely listed building, with 409 rooms for you to choose from. Serco Group Pty Limited Level 24 60 Margaret Street Sydney NSW 2000 Australia. Council housing was not just owned and managed by Local Authorities, but maintained and repaired by local in-house teams. I thought they meant I was to be deported. We have been renting a considerable number of properties to Asylum seekers ever since the home office contracts began. McCabe insisted: all holidays I have been on, I have paid for. Mears Group plc ( LON:MER ) is about to trade ex-dividend in the next three days. There is in effect an asylum housing landlord strike across the county. These items are used to deliver advertising that is more relevant to you and your interests. 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. You can report issues to us here, Address:Innova HouseInnova ParkKinetic CrescentEnfieldLondonEN3 7XH. Meanwhile, allegations of overcharging scams and possible council corruption hang over deals from Brighton and Scotland. www.mearsgroup.co.uk. 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. 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. I was really worried. You will need to contact them to make a claim for asylum support in the first instance, please visit, If you have no other means of support you will be provided with accommodation on a no choice basis by one of UKVIs contracted accommodation providers; in Newcastle the housing provider is, The roles of national and local government, Support after a decision on your asylum claim, Newcastle Support Directory Family Reunion, apply for the benefits you may be entitled to, refer you into education, training and employment opportunities. The Home Office operate a number of regional contracts to facilitate this. 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. People are relying on the energy grid more than ever to help power their daily lives and connect to the world around them. Nov 25, 2021. www.bbc.com . Mears paid out 12 million in 2017, up from 11 million the year before. Careers. We use some essential cookies to make this website work. Complaints in Parliament and in the media. Its flagship regeneration contract in Milton Keynes may be hitting the skids, while it has recently lost a major deal in its own home turf of Gloucestershire. 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. Albermarle, North Carolina. For example, a website may provide you with local weather reports or traffic news by storing data about your current location. Mears is an industry-leading energy infrastructure solutions provider offering engineering, construction and maintenance services to the oil and natural gas, electric transmission and distribution, telecommunications and wastewater industries. When you login first time using a Social Login button, we collect your account public profile information shared by Social Login provider, based on your privacy settings. Collinsville, IL Get in touch! At half past midnight on Christmas eve, Ruth, an asylum seeking mother with a 3-year-old child, rang me. The group, formed of housing, community, human rights and legal organisations, wants the Home Office and contractor Mears to improve living conditions. Another big Mears contract is the 200 million, ten year housing maintenance deal with Brighton and Hove City Council (BHCC), which began in 2010. We have gone through the teething problems of the Angel Group . Of course, the cost of all this falls on the landlord, not Mears. Councils often require new developments to include a proportion of affordable housing in order to meet planning stipulations, called section 106 agreements. Newcastle and Gateshead Clean Air Zone launches on Monday January 30. They dont make decisions on asylum applications. Mears is one of the UK's biggest maintenance and repairs contractors, working on over 650,000 homes for councils and housing associations. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. We will immediately start work on the Mobilisation so that we are ready to meet the needs of asylum seekers and their host communities., Mears awarded three Asylum Accommodation and Support Contracts. Almost 3,000 of these are run by Mears two non-profit subsidiaries Omega and Plexus (see section below). They have no idea where some people are., Terry showed me a text from Migrant Help saying that he was to be evicted. Find out about how to pay your rent, your service charges, what to do if you fall into arrears, and benefits advice. Barnsley has been inspecting all the licensed HMOs which Mears has been using. Croft House The new contracts will commence in September 2019 and the Home . The managing director is Willie Docherty, whose wife Sadie Docherty was Lord Provost of Glasgow between 2012 and 2017. For more details visit www.breathe-cleanair.com. We have been renting a considerable number of properties to Asylum seekers ever since the home office contracts began. Our business development department will review your application. Together they are worth 1.15 billion over ten years. I spent two months in another hotel and they only cleaned my room two or three times. Mears do not want to take responsibility for the lack of repairs (in my case it is ceilings falling in, kitchen floor caved in, windows nailed shut, bath rotting) and they offered me another of their overpriced properties only when I started suing them. 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.. Should we have an 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. Over the past weeks it has become clear that in South Yorkshire at least, the working of the Mears housing contract is in chaos, putting asylum tenants at daily risk. They may also be used to limit the number of times you see an advertisement and measure the effectiveness of advertising campaigns. Gas Engineer. A Mears spokesperson said: "Mears is carrying out a programme of improvements to properties used to accommodate asylum seekers. Tel: 0191 245 7301www.refugee.org.uk, West End Refugee Service (WERS) 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. I have been shocked to read about the plight of asylum -seekers in Mears accomodation& express my solidarity towards them. Back News; Subscribe. I knew the house well I had visited on each of the four previous occasions the families had been left without heating and hot water and this was the fifth time in two months the boiler had broken down. The trade union Unite announced victory in its strike over a pay dispute with Mears in Manchester in February 2018. Once your account is created, you'll be logged-in to this account. Mears is clear about how Plexus and Omega can play this role, saying that its affordable housing arms assist and support developers on section 106 agreements.. Robina Qureshi, PAIH's director, said: "We were getting messages in WhatsApp saying they were . The joint venture is now called Mears Scotland, with Mears holding 67% of the stock and the council 33%. Home Office statistics show that there were 34,354 new asylum claimants in the UK (main applicants only) in the year ending September 2019, 22 percent more than the previous year and the highest level for three years. There are a number of organisations which can help you to look for work. Even with infamously low wages being paid to staff, many contracts do not pay enough for companies to break even. I think the most frightening thing I saw was when there were over a hundred of us in a hotel in November, with families and some children under five, and we were all told to stay in the hotel for a week because on social media someone political had threatened us. Further complaint has been sent., Asylum housing tenants and others have told me of Barnsley HMOs which Mears had not cleaned for months and where basic hygiene repairs had simply not been done. We are all worried here in the house, it is dangerous for us to have no alarms., Mears is not coping at all, another contact told me. Mears does have another smaller MoD contract since 2016 it has run the militarys substitute service family accommodation, to find private sector housing for military personnel. I checked the visitation logs and Barnsley Councils Environmental Health Officer (EHO) had been there the day before. Call Freephone: 0800 170 7008 or email: housingadvicecentre@newcastle.gov.uk 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. Still, his 443,000 was more than 20 times the average Mears employees salary of 21,684. About Us. Please consider supporting our research and analysis by making a donation. Phone Number: 1-989-433-2929: Mears Group, Inc. industries Building: Headquarters Location: 5051 Westheimer Rd, Houston, Texas . 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. In the latest (2017) annual report it describes itself as a national Social Mobility Champion and leading employer of apprentices. There he became a managing director and head of industrial sector. If you have no other means of support you will be provided with accommodation on a no choice basis by one of UKVIs contracted accommodation providers; in Newcastle the housing provider is Mears. Two months later, there was still no heating or hot water, and Mears staff had not visited the property. No report was sent to the landlord. Another contact alleged that None of us know how Mears is working. The scheme is a 50/50 Joint Venture with the council. Accounts filed at Companies House show that Clearsprings Ready Homes Ltd - the full legal name of the company running the asylum contracts - was paid 68.7 million for its services in the year ending 31 January 2020.. Clearsprings makes its money as a housing outsourcer to central . However, staff turnover remains, in Mears words, unsustainable. A landlord with a long history of providing asylum housing for Home Office contracts told me, Only two or three existing asylum housing landlords have signed contracts with Mears in the whole of South Yorkshire. Muslim women with the headscarf were really terrified and very afraid for their children.. At. Read more about our complaints process, here. Hello Boglarka Holt was paid 285,000 for 2017. It is important that you seek specialist support to help you consider your options. The contract began in 2016 and was set to last for up to 10 years. The other day I think it was the Council who came and they saw the house and the toilet and other problems. 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). Moreover, Mears understands the importance of supporting each person whilst living in its accommodation and to ensure that as a company it works with the communities in which it delivers services. Performed by ANSI and NACECertified NDE Specialists. Last week I was sent mobile phone pictures from residents of the hostel, showing dirty toilets,crowded shared rooms and infestation by bed bugs. One Mears subsidiary, called Terraquest, is unlike other parts of the business. Call Asylum Help UK if youre an adult asylum seeker or the dependant of an adult asylum seeker. additional documentation. These items allow the website to remember choices you make (such as your user name, language, or the region you are in) and provide enhanced, more personal features. And I can prove that beyond any doubt. McCabe did take gifts of dinners, whiskey and chocolates from Mears, but these were legally declared on the councils website. The AIRE contract has been a disaster. 11:43, 25 JAN 2023. Is there a company you think we should be looking into? Both Serco and G4S complained of losing large sums of money on the previous deals. Another was pushing councils to contract out repairs and other services to the private sector. Mears says its care workers are paid above minimum wage and that it is central to our strategy that care workers are properly recognised as the skilled workers they are. We have a dedicated team of Local Authority Asylum Seeker Liaison Officers (LAASLOs) who can support you during the asylum process. Well send you a link to a feedback form. Email. At Quanta its not a job its a career. Nearby Doncaster had begun a similar programme of inspections. Thirdly, they will help develop relationships with key partners, such as local councils, who Mears may also work with on more profitable developments. Women in particular never get shampoo and toiletries normal for guests. Contribute to chinapedia/wikipedia.en development by creating an account on GitHub. Asylum Support Application UK. His career has been advising businesses on financial deals such as raising money or buying other companies. Asylum seekers need some care and support. Mears has 6,500 employees and a footprint across the country. 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. The former Erskine Bridge Hotel will offer refuge to asylum seekers arriving in the UK from this week (Image: Andrew Neil) Almost 200 asylum seekers will be placed in an . They are listed as non profit but are companies limited by guarantee rather than charities. Its revenues from this in 2017 were 134 million, down from 152 million the year before. 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. A separate investigation by Audit Scotland also concluded that the councils accounting of money payments in the Mears contract was not illegal. She is former Chief Executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust and also now a director of Yorkshire Water. 4500 North Mission Road Rosebush, Michigan 48878, Unmatched Capabilities across North America and beyond, Underground Utility and Infrastructure Solutions, Service renewal, meter, piping and relight services, Turnkey, engineer, procure andconstruct (EPC), New construction, integrity andmaintenance services, Fault Locate & Repair (primary/secondary/street light), Cable Installation/Replacement (URDDB / Network ), Cable Splicing 4kV 69kV Transformer & Switch Installation, Conduit/Duct Bank Installation and repair, Full Service crossbore inspection and location of all storm and sanitary lines, Industry leading lateral launch inspection equipment, 100% of footage is reviewed by offsite auditors, Proprietary T.C.A.T. brand of power transmission tower and pipeline inspection services, risk analysis, and real-time data reporting. Mears makes much of being a high quality and socially responsibly company. Newcastle upon Tyne They said they would do something. Next door I was welcomed by two asylum seeking men on their way out, who encouraged me to look around and take pictures. As part of the contract, Mears will be responsible for the upkeep of thousands of homes occupied by asylum seekers waiting for their claims to be processed. 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. When you visit websites, they may store or retrieve data in your browser. Address 324 West Gore Street . Hassle free, 1 to 5 year leases. Click here to contact us if you have any further information about the YourMK partnership or Mears activities in Milton Keynes. Asylum Support Application UK In a recent June survey, a majority of asylum seekers in hotels have rated the food provided either okay, good or very good. Most of the rest, 194 million, were made up of goodwill. The Mears New Homes division was set up in 2014. What next for the Mears asylum contract in South Yorkshire? He also chairs the investment committee at University College London hospital. 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. For example, in recent developments in Luton and Basingstoke. These officers will support the move on process if you are granted refugee status and will offer advice and signposting if you receive a negative decision on your asylum claim. Mears rules out controversial policy imposed by previous asylum housing provider Serco Libby Brooks Scotland correspondent Thu 25 Jun 2020 09.46 EDT First published on Thu 25 Jun 2020 09.45 EDT Of course, this personally benefited many local politicians and managers who moved into well-paid private sector jobs. Last time they sent somebody who said he had come up from near London, Ruth said. Despite our size, Mears remains a family company . The contracts are to provide accommodation as well as supporting each service user. We are committed to providing meaningful careers in engineering and construction services for the oil and natural gas, electric and telecom industries. I have been in five different hotels. 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. When you visit websites, they may store or retrieve data in your browser. We have a local group in E16 representing Mears tenants who feel conned and let down by this company. Residents on the first estate targeted, Fullers Slade, protested at being let down and ignored by YourMK. News. Mitie Property Management has over 1,000 staff and contracts with more than 30 landlords, bringing in annual revenues of 138 million. Its revenues more than doubled in size over the previous ten years, increasing from 420 million in 2008. Mears Living includes Plexus and Omega Housing and Mears Student Life. I clean my own room here, nobody cleans our rooms in some of the hotels. As a result a range of different investors own stakes in the company. As many authorities closed or sold off their DLO maintenance departments, the winners were contractors like Mears. The storage may be used for marketing, analytics, and personalization of the site, such as storing your preferences. Ann Arbor, Michigan. Mears presents itself as a step up from notorious outsourcing rivals like Serco and G4S. Safe and Innovative Infrastructure Solutions. St Philips Vicarage 15,719 (2016) Website. In 2017, Stroud Council, in Mears own county of Gloucestershire, cancelled its 4 million maintenance contract with Mears after just one year. 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. 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. Group Transportation Sales. 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). These items help the website operator understand how its website performs, how visitors interact with the site, and whether there may be technical issues. Listed below are details of how you can get help with core services: Housing - Depending on your situation, you have several options: Council Housing - Your Homes Newcastle (YHN) provides housing on behalf of the Council. 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. It deals in information. All of which could be very profitable for Mears and other private sector partners. Newcastle upon Tyne. 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.