Blocking categories may impact your experience on the website. I have been shocked to read about the plight of asylum -seekers in Mears accomodation& express my solidarity towards them. Check benefits and financial support you can get, Find out about the Energy Bills Support Scheme, youre an asylum seeker and youve just arrived in the UK, youve just received the decision on your asylum application, youve been successful in your asylum application and are building a new life in the UK, dealing with agencies, eg social services, building a life in the UK if youre given permission to stay here, threatened or harmed by someone because of your race, threatened or harmed by a member of your family. No report was sent to the landlord. Another contact alleged that None of us know how Mears is working. However, staff turnover remains, in Mears words, unsustainable. Read genuine customer reviews of Mears Group in Uddingston, G71 on allAgents, the UK's largest customer review website dedicated to the property industry. United Kingdom, Email: contact[at]corporatewatch.org They dont make decisions on asylum applications. 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. Call Childrens Panel if youre a child in the UK on your own and applying for asylum. These items are used to deliver advertising that is more relevant to you and your interests. Together, the two organisations are funding the purchase of more than 800 basic smartphones in an initiative that recognises the social and emotional needs for connectivity of a group that has experienced . He then found a home at Mears in 2013, becoming Chairman of its social landlord businesses Omega and Plexus. It repairs and maintains over 700,000 social homes across the UK. In solidarity One important trend in the UK housing world is the convergence of private and social sectors. In a June 2018 presentation, Mears identified four major housing maintenance competitors: Wates, Fortem, Kier (click here for our profile of them), and Mitie Property Maintenance, which it has since bought. 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. Click here to contact us if you have any further information about the YourMK partnership or Mears activities in Milton Keynes. NE1 6SQ Through the years, Mears has grown steadily by picking up outsourcing contracts from both councils and housing associations, taking over former DLOs and buying out competing maintenance businesses. At Quanta its not a job its a career. To start with, Mears has two affordable housing subsidiaries called Omega Housing and Plexus UK (First Project). 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. 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. Albermarle, North Carolina. 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". This scenario has been playing out across the UK since September 2019, when three companies Serco, Clearsprings and the Mears Group took over the Home Office contract for the provision of asylum housing for asylum seekers awaiting decisions (currently 48,000). Email. 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. Mears long-time chairman Bob Holt was recently pushed out by the second biggest shareholder, German investor Shareholder Value Management. Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm. There is no suggestion that Mears uses the nationwide planning data it manages to gain an unfair advantage in its own developments. 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.. National government determines immigration status and whether or not an asylum seeker is accepted. We would also love to hear from you if you have any positive or constructive feedback to offer. . Newcastle and Gateshead Clean Air Zone launches on Monday January 30. It is important that you seek specialist, professional advice from an organisation who can advise you on this such as: Newcastle Law Centre The roles of national and local governmentSupport for Asylum SeekersSupport after a decision on your asylum claimSupport for Refugees There are already hints to what could happen in Mears accounts. 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. 2 Friars Street For more information about Newcastle:City of Sanctuary and the partners involved please visit City of Sanctuary. Links. Michael, who invited me into one property, showed me a blocked toilet upstairs. It also has other business lines including employer security checks. Mears Living includes Plexus and Omega Housing and Mears Student Life. 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. When you visit websites, they may store or retrieve data in your browser. 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. NE1 4AX Cathodic Protection Design andEvaluation, AC Mitigation Design, Installation, andCommissioning, Electric Transmission and SubstationServices PackageInspection, Evaluation,Corrosion Management, Direct Assessment Integrity ServiceECDA, ICDA, SCCDA, ECDA for CasedPipe, Pipeline engineeringevaluations/assessments, Facility and storage cavern corrosionassessments, Alternating Current Voltage Gradient(ACVG), Current Attenuation with a PipelineCurrent Mapper (PCM), Depth of Cover and Inclination ProfileSurveys, EPC EngineeringProcurement Construction, Marine Crossings (Water-to-Waterand Shore Approaches), Engineering, Procurement andConstruction, Mains Cast Iron and BareSteel Replacement, Auditing Support withState Regulators/ PHMSA, Using software and tools tosupport Distribution, Permits, Road andRailRoad, Environmental, Public Improvement forroad and/or utilityexpansions. There are Category 1 hazards throughout my home. But for Mears, this will mean taking one of its main competitors out of the game. Both are wholly owned by Mears and are registered with the governments Social Housing Regulator as social housing providers. All rights reserved. An asylum housing landlord strike in South Yorkshire, Mears depends on entering into leases with private landlords to provide houses, flats and HMOs (Houses in Multiple Occupation). Placemaking also involves: blurring of the boundaries around social, affordable and private rented housing. It told maintenance teams they needed to shave in order to wear appropriate dust masks effectively. Dripping Springs, TX Residents on the first estate targeted, Fullers Slade, protested at being let down and ignored by YourMK. 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. Mears has been awarded three new government contracts to provide accommodation and support for asylum seekers., The contracts are to provide accommodation as well as supporting each service user. A separate investigation by Audit Scotland also concluded that the councils accounting of money payments in the Mears contract was not illegal. Mears Group recognise our people as our greatest asset. For all of these, the solution was, of course, Mears, evidenced by .. YourMK. To describe its new business approach overall, Mears likes to use a current regeneration buzzword Placemaking. 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. Safe and Innovative Infrastructure Solutions. The new contracts will commence in September 2019 and the Home . You can report issues to us here, Address:Innova HouseInnova ParkKinetic CrescentEnfieldLondonEN3 7XH. Company Watch (no relation to Corporate Watch), a financial analysis firm used by the government, recently described the business models of outsourcing giants Serco, Capita, Interserve and Mitie as bankrupt. What next for the Mears asylum contract in South Yorkshire? 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. If you have had a negative decision on your asylum claim then you will also be expected to leave your asylum accommodation and your financial support will stop. News. Telephone: 0808 801 0503 As a result Mears has had to scale back its ambitions. As a result, while a company may be acting primarily in the interests of its shareholders, responsibility for its actions is difficult to lay at the door of any one shraeholder. Finally, Mears has also started to develop and build houses itself, particularly as part of regeneration schemes. More than 50 asylum seekers are in a hotel in Falkirk - and Aberdeen and Perth could house more. Our role is in liaison with these private contractors to try and ensure that they can respond to local circumstances and to then manage the move-on arrangements when people are granted refugee status. Our culture is about supporting an environment where all employees can be themselves, are valued and have an equal opportunity to succeed. I have been forced to stay put until Mears carried out the repairs in accordance with the legal settlement. "An inspection was carried out at this property in Newcastle and . Councils often require new developments to include a proportion of affordable housing in order to meet planning stipulations, called section 106 agreements. 2727 North Loop West 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. However, a potential worry for Mears is that its business model depends on winning new maintenance or care contracts every year. As part of the Mears Group we offer partnership solutions and expertise in estate management and property maintenance. 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. 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). He told the Independent, I had hoped for a huge improvement in services for refugees, but its clear the system is failing due to lack of capacity. Mears shares are bought and sold on the London Stock Exchange. Taxicab Dispatch. Asylum housing tenants simply do not complain, and are often frightened about challenging any official, including their landlord. Find out about how to pay your rent, your service charges, what to do if you fall into arrears, and benefits advice. Mears has 6,500 employees and a footprint across the country. This is the first time Mears has worked as a refugee landlord. 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. However, the market has not been as profitable as Mears hoped. Lettings and management services included. UKVI are responsible for making a decision on your asylum claim and providing you with accommodation and financial support while you are waiting. Asylum seekers need some care and support. 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. Mears Limited 821 000 0004 Northern Ireland Mears Limited 113 000 0005 North West Serco Limited 1 079 000 0006 Scotland Mears Limited 514 000 0007 South Clearsprings Ready Homes 662 000 0008 Wales Clearsprings Ready Homes 334 000 0009 Total value of contracts 4 553 000 000 Serco: 2 109 000 000 Mears: 1 448 000 000 We will discuss this point further below. 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. Odessa, TX At half past midnight on Christmas eve, Ruth, an asylum seeking mother with a 3-year-old child, rang me. I clean my own room here, nobody cleans our rooms in some of the hotels. 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. 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. It is important that you seek specialist support to help you consider your options. Contribute to chinapedia/wikipedia.en development by creating an account on GitHub. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. 11:43, 25 JAN 2023. 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. According to this document, Mears approach combines maintenance, housing management and asset management in deals that are bigger and more complex, with potential for higher margin and some opportunities secured outside competitive process (we are not exactly sure what that last phrase means). Dont worry we wont send you spam or share your email address with anyone. Its housing with care schemes involve running sheltered housing with carers on call. 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. 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. 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. Tel: 0191 2737961www.redcross.org.uk. In Belfast, the BBC reported in September that a woman asylum seeker reported water leaking into her kitchen. . Heber City, UT John Taylor, Chief Operating Officer, is a newer arrival. Elizabeth Corrado is linked to the booming world of social finance, where investment banking meets philanthropy for a profit, of course. Alternatively, you can contact our Customer Success team using the Contact Us form on the page. 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). They have no understanding of what asylum housing is about. Almost 3,000 of these are run by Mears two non-profit subsidiaries Omega and Plexus (see section below). 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. UK Benefits System. www.mearsgroup.co.uk. 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. 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 . 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. We take anti-social behaviour very seriously. The company agreed to raise and equalise wages after 80 days of strikes. 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 have been renting a considerable number of properties to Asylum seekers ever since the home office contracts began. In the North East, Yorkshire and the Humber this contract is held by Mears. For example, a website may provide you with local weather reports or traffic news by storing data about your current location. This storage is often necessary for the basic functionality of the website. Last time they sent somebody who said he had come up from near London, Ruth said. Our business development department will review your application. Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm So can Mears confidently expect the acquired businesses to bring in profits to justify the current valuations? Would love your thoughts, please comment. 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. She is former Chief Executive of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and the Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust and also now a director of Yorkshire Water. St Philips Vicarage In the five years between 2013-2017, Mears paid out 52 million in dividends, with the amount rising each year. Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm We have a dedicated team of Local Authority Asylum Seeker Liaison Officers (LAASLOs) who can support you during the asylum process. 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. 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. Two months later, there was still no heating or hot water, and Mears staff had not visited the property. 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. Call Asylum Help UK if youre an adult asylum seeker or the dependant of an adult asylum seeker. Newcastle upon Tyne. opportunity that fits your companys profile, a representative will reach out to you for I am a Mears tenant in Newham, London. In circumstances such as these, their food is provided and they lose their 5.30 daily, which means they often cannot top up their phones to contact lawyers and family, or buy fresh . 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. Barnsley has been inspecting all the licensed HMOs which Mears has been using. I take them from the cleaners trolley and give to the women. Report anti-social behaviour. Contact Information . Executive Offices. Well send you a link to a feedback form. But there is no evidence of any illegal wrongdoing. 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 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. 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 . Mears home care division provides care to 15,000 older and disabled people. Without this, the overall worth of the company according to its accounts would drop from 210 million to just 15 million. We have been renting a considerable number of properties to Asylum seekers ever since the home office contracts began. We must not give up fighting back and scrutinizing this company. The scheme is a 50/50 Joint Venture with the council. A council investigation found that it had been overcharged by over 500,000 for some 1,000 plastering jobs. Western Avenue 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. The Home Office operate a number of regional contracts to facilitate this. If you are granted refugee status, humanitarian protection or discretionary leave to remain, you can apply for help and financial support through the UK benefits system provided you meet the usual conditions of entitlement. Investors reckon the companys shares are worth 3.30 each and 363 million when they are all added together (market capitalisation, in the jargon). These items are required to enable basic website functionality. Mears is an outsourcing company working in two sectors: housing management, and home care. Mears business is above all about partnership, making joint ventures and contracts with other developers especially government bodies, councils, and housing associations. These items are required to enable basic website functionality. You will receive notice to leave the accommodation within 21 days. Operating income. At the end of our discussion he told me: I intend to instruct officers tomorrow (16 January) that the policy of Sheffield City Council is that we want this asylum housing contract to revert to the Council. The contract began in 2016 and was set to last for up to 10 years. Published: January 8, 2019. Alternatively you can write to us on: Migrant Help, Charlton House, Dour Street, Dover, CT16 1AT. At the time of writing, Mears is still working in Brighton. Aurora, Illinois. TECH: A Guide to the Politics and Philosophy of Technology. We look forward to hearing from you.Find contact details for care, repairs or management queries on our list of local branches. For welfare rights and money advice please visitWelfare Rights. Starkville, MS. Mears is the premier provider of engineering, design and construction services to the pipeline and utility industries. 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. Park Inn: What do we know about asylum hotel at centre of Glasgow attack? Ruth and I then separately rang the national number demand was low at 1.30 am on Christmas morning, and we got through. This is reflected in the non-execs on the board, who are plugged in to these different parts of the regeneration industry. Learn how your comment data is processed. Right now a window has burst open in the middle of night and we cant close it as it was held shut for 8 years by 1 nail only. This product is licensed from F5 Networks. I think the job of a local council is to do its best to make sure that all its residents have safe and decent homes to live in., A crisis for asylum housing tenants in Mears housing in South Yorkshire. Meanwhile, allegations of overcharging scams and possible council corruption hang over deals from Brighton and Scotland. 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. Use the branch locator to find a contact number for your local branch. Urban House is very unpopular with asylum seekers. Call Freephone: 0800 170 7008 or email: [email protected]. 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. Mears Group plc is a housing and social care provider. It is not yet fully clear what this will mean for the partnership with Mears. 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. Last week Cllr Paul Wood, Sheffield City Council cabinet member for neighbourhoods and community safety, talked to me about the widespread problems with the management of the asylum housing contracts by new contractor the Mears Group. 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. In other Mears contract areas, similar examples were emerging. These items are used to deliver advertising that is more relevant to you and your interests. While this is a big new income source for Mears, asylum landlords have not always had an easy ride financially. Mears Group. Notably, Orchard & Shipman were sub-contracted by Serco to run much of their asylum housing contract in Scotland between 2012 and 2016. 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. 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. Serco and Clearsprings had been providing asylum housing since privatisation in 2012. Failings in one branch saw people left without medicine and meals. Borrowing too much from banks and other lenders is a major reason why construction and maintenance companies go bust, Carillion most recently. The Mears New Homes division was set up in 2014. Mears presents itself as a step up from notorious outsourcing rivals like Serco and G4S. Miles was paid 443,000 in 2017. Asylum seekers are also having to spend longer in asylum housing or hotels waiting for interviews and decisions. However, Mears two biggest shareholders see themselves as activist investors that involve themselves in the running of their companies. Nov 25, 2021. www.bbc.com . The storage may be used for marketing, analytics, and personalization of the site, such as storing your preferences. 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. John Taylor, Chief Operating Officer of Mears said: Mears provides housing and care to many thousands of people all across the UK, including some who are vulnerable. Main picture: a Mears sponsored networking event with senior council and housing association managers. Council housing was not just owned and managed by Local Authorities, but maintained and repaired by local in-house teams. Should we have an 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 . People are relying on the energy grid more than ever to help power their daily lives and connect to the world around them. The number of properties in use varies depending on size, but around 300 are presently being provided in Sheffield. All of which could be very profitable for Mears and other private sector partners. This is the living room. David showed me damaged furniture and a decaying wall cupboard, then a storage area with stained and damaged wall and dirty stair carpets.
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