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Asylum housing tenants simply do not complain, and are often frightened about challenging any official, including their landlord. Dont worry we wont send you spam or share your email address with anyone. 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. Please contact Migrant Help to report any problems with your asylumaccommodation, they will liaise with the accommodation provider on your behalf to address these. If you try to submit a local council planning application online, you will probably be redirected there. 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. 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. But, at least, providing this service must give it a real familiarity with the planning system and how it works across the country. Chips and crisps from 1.30 in the afternoon to 8 oclock the next day., Poor health care for pregnant women, people not tracked, Terry told me, In the hotel where I spent two months there was a pregnant woman who was visited by the midwife. During the Mobilisation period, up to 1st April 2019, Mears will work with the Home Office and service users to make sure that accommodation that is used in the new AASC contract meets the required quality standard. You have rejected additional cookies. Mears is one of the UKs biggest maintenance and repairs contractors, working on over 650,000 homes for councils and housing associations. Nowadays, Murphy sits on the boards of large public sector organisations as well as private companies. 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.. Mears operates transparent accounting in all of our public contracts.. Read genuine customer reviews of Mears Group in Uddingston, G71 on allAgents, the UK's largest customer review website dedicated to the property industry. We have a dedicated team of Local Authority Asylum Seeker Liaison Officers (LAASLOs) who can support you during the asylum process. 112-114 Pilgrim Street 866-435-5686. 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. 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. In Scotland, Mears has a major contract with North Lanarskhire Council, worth an estimated 445 million over ten years, to maintain the councils 36,500 council homes, as well as schools and public buildings. Mears claim to provide rapid response repairs but all they do is avoid responsibility and sparing on repair costs. However, staff turnover remains, in Mears words, unsustainable. As mentioned above, it boasts that one of the key features of its placemaking business strategy is: Blurring of the boundaries around social, affordable and private rented housing. However, the sooner you start working with usthe better, so please make contact as soon as you receive your letter telling you that your asylum support and accommodation is due to stop. Picture: from Brighton & Hove Housing Coalition. Monday to Friday, 8am to 8pm. Asylum Help UK 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. Call Freephone: 0800 170 7008 or email: housingadvicecentre@newcastle.gov.uk Blocking categories may impact your experience on the website. Allegations involving overcharging scams and corruption hang over deals from Brighton and Scotland. Mears staff and NHS staff also eat the food in the hotels along with residents. We would also love to hear from you if you have any positive or constructive feedback to offer. GitHub export from English Wikipedia. We provide and manage 11,000 homes for local and central Government and are also responsible . To describe its new business approach overall, Mears likes to use a current regeneration buzzword Placemaking. A council investigation found that it had been overcharged by over 500,000 for some 1,000 plastering jobs. As many authorities closed or sold off their DLO maintenance departments, the winners were contractors like Mears. Detailed knowledge of current standards and legislation. To start with, Mears has two affordable housing subsidiaries called Omega Housing and Plexus UK (First Project). It is important that you seek specialist, professional advice from an organisation who can advise you on this such as: Newcastle Law Centre DRIVE WITH US. 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. In Belfast, the BBC reported in September that a woman asylum seeker reported water leaking into her kitchen. We have been renting a considerable number of properties to Asylum seekers ever since the home office contracts began. Back News; Subscribe. 15,719 (2016) Website. Main picture: a Mears sponsored networking event with senior council and housing association managers. For welfare rights and money advice please visitWelfare Rights. G4S lost all its asylum housing contracts in 2019 after a sustained campaign over six years by asylum tenants with the courage to complain and challenge the international security company as their landlord. Get in touch! You do not have any money at all to buy anything extra to what you are given. According to local press, Mears agreed to end the contract after heavy criticism about its council housing repairs and maintenance work. Things got even worse for the deal in October 2018. Legal changes and budget controls pushed the privatisation of council housing in a number of ways, including Right to Buy sales and the mass stock transfer of around 1.9 million homes from councils to housing associations. Albermarle, North Carolina. Migrant Help is a national service, funded by UKVI, providing free, independent advice and guidance to asylum seekers to help make claims for support and give general advice about the asylum process. 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. I wish you good luck and the very best in your fight for a decent place to live One notable point: from September 2012 until 2016, Sercos Scottish asylum housing was largely sub-contracted to another scandal-hit company, Orchard & Shipman. Mears Group. 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. 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.. Image: Glasgow asylum housing run by previous sub-contractor Orchard & Shipman, whose old CEO now works at Mears. Newcastle has been welcoming asylum seekers for many years. 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. The AIRE contract has been a disaster. 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. They have no understanding of what asylum housing is about. 2 Friars Street 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. 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. People who work in the hotels are often really rude to us. Asylum accommodation and support services; News News. The Old Mill. 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). The storage may be used for marketing, analytics, and personalization of the site, such as storing your preferences. Mears/Terraquests biggest coup is running a big piece of the whole UK planning system: 90% of all planning applications in England and Wales (according to a Mears presentation) go through one internet system called the National Planning Portal. Asylum seekers need some care and support. 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. Merrimack, NH We look forward to hearing from you.Find contact details for care, repairs or management queries on our list of local branches. Councils often require new developments to include a proportion of affordable housing in order to meet planning stipulations, called section 106 agreements. These items help the website operator understand how its website performs, how visitors interact with the site, and whether there may be technical issues. In the North East, Yorkshire and the Humber this contract is held by Mears. Mears home care division provides care to 15,000 older and disabled people. Another big Mears contract is the 200 million, ten year housing maintenance deal with Brighton and Hove City Council (BHCC), which began in 2010. Dripping Springs, TX A Mears spokesperson said: "Mears is carrying out a programme of improvements to properties used to accommodate asylum seekers. I tried to contact them but there was no reply for hours. This is the first time Mears has worked as a refugee landlord. The storage may be used for marketing, analytics, and personalization of the site, such as storing your preferences. He is well connected in the university world, as a former director of City University and now of the University of London. You should receive 28 days notice of the date that you must leave. In particular, one model Mears is pushing is converting empty commercial property, such as old offices, into affordable housing. This is under the control of the Home Office and the UK Visas and Immigration department who decide who can legally reside in the UK. This model of local public provision was attacked by Conservative and Labour governments from the 1980s on. The properties here are to be demolished at a later time. But for Mears, this will mean taking one of its main competitors out of the game. This storage is often necessary for the basic functionality of the website. They have no idea where some people are., Terry showed me a text from Migrant Help saying that he was to be evicted. The majority of the IRRs work is free to access. Please consider supporting our research and analysis by making a donation. 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. 4500 North Mission Road Rosebush, Michigan 48878. And if people are in hotels instead of being dispersed, nobody has any money to buy even the basic necessities. I thought they meant I was to be deported. Read more about our complaints process, here. While technically non profit, these subsidiaries can help other parts of the business make money. So far, Mears has overall management responsibility for some 10,000 properties. Many of these are Terraquests customers. contract to provide asylum seeker housing, Blurring the boundaries between private and social, : Milton Keynes regeneration, Brighton overcharging, Scottish corruption allegations, Stroud repairs, Apprenticeships, Industrial disputes, Beards. Charities run the helplines. Despite our size, Mears remains a family company . Terry, a design manager speaking fluent English, told me of his concerns about everyday life in the hotels. If you have claimed asylum it is important that you get legal advice and find a solicitor to represent your case as soon as possible, as there are very short deadlines for providing the evidence needed to support your claim for asylum. When you join our team, you join a dynamic culture in which career development is encouraged, excellence is rewarded and diversity is valued. 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. Even with infamously low wages being paid to staff, many contracts do not pay enough for companies to break even. Use the branch locator to find a contact number for your local branch. This storage is often necessary for the basic functionality of the website. Last week I was sent video material of bed bugs crawling on woodwork in a Bradford asylum house where people had been placed from Urban House. For example, a website may provide you with local weather reports or traffic news by storing data about your current location. 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. When the contracts start in September 2019, Mears will run asylum seeker housing in Scotland, Northern Ireland, and . To keep growing, Mears is expanding into new business lines, such as building its own housing developments and running its own regeneration schemes. 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. Newcastle upon Tyne Full Time - Permanent - Up to 37,000, depending on experience - Plus company van & fuel card! So can Mears confidently expect the acquired businesses to bring in profits to justify the current valuations? 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. 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. Set up in 2015, it initially had the relatively straightforward aim of maintaining the councils existing stock. 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. 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. There is in effect an asylum housing landlord strike across the county. 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. In 2017 he also joined the board. Of course, this personally benefited many local politicians and managers who moved into well-paid private sector jobs. In practice, the accommodation is rented from a wide range of housing associations and smaller private landlords, with Mears acting as the overall manager. 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. 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 . The national portal is set up by the governments Ministry of Homes, Communities and Local Governments. Mears Group plc is a housing and social care provider. Tel: 0191 273 7482www.wers.org.uk, British Red Cross Notably, Orchard & Shipman were sub-contracted by Serco to run much of their asylum housing contract in Scotland between 2012 and 2016. We have some kids here from 5 to 8 years old. It has been particularly involved in Mears governance in the last year as it successfully led a move to oust long-term chairman Bob Holt (see the people section). The Citizen reports council leader Peter Marland saying: The council received a whistleblowing allegation regarding spending on our housing repairs contract. Loveland, CO According to official sources, between 600 and 900 asylum seekers are being accommodated in hotels at any one time in West Yorkshire. 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. The other day I think it was the Council who came and they saw the house and the toilet and other problems. 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. If you would like to give us feedback on our website, please complete this short online form. Women in particular never get shampoo and toiletries normal for guests. Call Asylum Support Application UK if youre an asylum seeker and cant support yourself financially and want to apply for asylum support. For example, a website may provide you with local weather reports or traffic news by storing data about your current location. News. While in the IAC, asylum seekers, whether single or families, receive no money at all, simply a room and food. But he was also eligible for a bonus on top of his salary of up to 774,000, which would have taken his income well over the million mark. According to its published accounts, the new activities in its housing and care businesses have not been funded by taking on lots of extra debt. Orlando Airport and Attraction Shuttle Reservations. In January Cllr Paul Wood chair of Sheffield City Housing told SYMAAG '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. Do you have information about Mears youd like to share with us? This is effectively the same contract that Mears have now taken over from Serco. Almost 100 million of the goodwill is for the home care businesses Mears has bought (see the section on home care above for details). 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. St Philips Vicarage 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. Like G4S, Serco, Capita and other well-known outsourcing corporations, Mears Group has grown from the ongoing privatisation of public services. Mears financial health at first glance appears solid. According to its latest annual report, Mears works on over 14% over 650,000 of the social homes in the UK. At the time of writing, the YourMK website has been closed down, with a page announcing that information will be updated in April 2019. I hope you can get Mears to come quickly. Read more about our complaints process, here. Failings in one branch saw people left without medicine and meals. In the four South Yorkshire council areas there are around 2,000 asylum seekers in asylum housing, with Sheffield having around 900. Over the past four months, the combination of these delays and Mears contract performance its failures in terms of the quality, cleanliness and general management of homes have failed tenants. All rights reserved. How does Terraquest fit into Mears strategy? These items are required to enable basic website functionality. However, Mears two biggest shareholders see themselves as activist investors that involve themselves in the running of their companies. Here the food is not bad sometimes but very small portions. 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. The scheme is a 50/50 Joint Venture with the council. For example, subsidiary vehicle that could deliver funding over 30. I checked the visitation logs and Barnsley Councils Environmental Health Officer (EHO) had been there the day before. We want Newcastle to be a city where everyone feels welcome and has opportunities to reach their full potential in life. Or do you have information on a company that you would like to share? 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. It told maintenance teams they needed to shave in order to wear appropriate dust masks effectively. 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 . The company employs 12,000 people. If you are in receipt of benefits it may be a requirement of the Jobcentre Plus that you look for work. (See our 2018 company profile of Mitie here.) Its accounts contain a long justification for the potential of its home care business, and thus maintaining the value of its goodwill. In 2017 it had 345 housing apprentices and 224 care apprentices. At Quanta its not a job its a career. Call Now To Reserve: 855-463-2776. . They dont make decisions on asylum applications. The new contracts will commence in September 2019 and the Home . Thank you very much for your comments and for your solidarity with Mears tenants in asylum housing 407-839-1570. However, there were still instances of appalling care. But this crisis suggests that hotels are being used not just as overspill but as mainstream asylum housing. Childrens Panel (England only) Newcastle upon Tyne. Read more about our complaints process, here. (limited service at other times) c/o BASE Community Co-operative 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 San Ramon, CA 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). We have gone through the teething . Outside the properties there were piles of rubbish near the street entrance. In a recent June survey, a majority of asylum seekers in hotels have rated the food provided either okay, good or very good. But the plastering scam was not an isolated incident. Telephone: 020 7346 1134 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. 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. People are relying on the energy grid more than ever to help power their daily lives and connect to the world around them. This will include identifying support needs, managing community cohesion issues, and developing strong partnerships with local authorities and in communities.. This is estimated to be in the order of six figures again, according to the Brighton and Hove News. 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. This also means your children will go to a free . This storage type usually doesnt collect information that identifies a visitor. This division still makes up over three quarters of Mears housing business. Miami, FL Later, Morgan said he was suing the Labour Group over the issue. Scottish media reported allegations that he had been ousted for asking awkward questions about the Mears contract. 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. Meanwhile, Mears top brass receive handsome rewards. The contract started in January 2011, as a partnership deal between the council and a company called Morrison Facilities Services Ltd, a subsidiary of Anglian Water. 1999-2018 F5 Networks. Nov 25, 2021. www.bbc.com . Asylum Support Application UK Odessa, TX MEA House But, less than two years into the scheme, the wheels started to fall off. 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. . But landlords are also frustrated and angry. (24-hour service for emergencies) He then moved to Mears in 2013. Migrant Help is a national service, funded by UKVI, providing free, independent advice and guidance to asylum seekers to help make claims for support and give general advice about the asylum process. Its biggest acquisition yet was announced in November 2018. Blogs. It alleged Holt who cut his business teeth working for notorious Tory donor Lord Ashcroft had continually failed to challenge the status quo of deteriorating results, a stagnant share price and faded shareholder value. Mears are responsible for maintencae and repairs. We will push for the Mears contract to be terminated by the Home Office. 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. 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. 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 . It is based in Gloucestershire, but works all over the UK. Press Enquiries. 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 company currently specializes in the Construction area . 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. On 20 October Alex Cunningham, MP for Stockton North, raised issues around the failing Mears contract in the North East in the House of Commons, accusing the government of failing to ensure their new contract works for the people its there to serve. From its beginnings in pipeline engineering, it has grown to be a leader in corrosion engineering, pipeline integrity management . . The company employs 12,000 people. It is based in Gloucestershire, but works all over the UK. The council also announced it would change the structure, operation and senior management of Your MK. In fact, he hasnt made anything like his possible top bonus in the last four years. They move us regularly. Mears men told me that there were just now 800 people in the hotels. For more information about the evidence sought by the NAO investigation, contact Asylum Matters. 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.