Its main business lines include providing repairs, maintenance, and other services to housing associations. Scotland. Mears’ asylum housing deals are part of the overall system where the Home Office contracts refugee housing out to private corporations in a number of big regional contracts. Midlands and East of England. In Scotland, Mears takes over from Serco, after a strong local campaign against that company’s attempts to evict 300 refugees from their homes in Glasgow. 0870 607 1400 Brockworth. The cause of death is unclear, with any postmortem examination delayed by the corona crisis. Winner: Mears Group. Telephone: ‍033 0678 0277. As part of the contract, Mears will be responsible for the upkeep of thousands of homes occupied by new refugees, those just granted leave to remain and asylum seekers at varying stages of the asylum process. At the same time, the charity Migrant Help has landed a £100 million contract to run the Home Office system called “Advice, Issue Reporting and Eligibility (AIRE)” services. Certainly, this company doesn’t have the inglorious reputation of notorious outsourcing giants Serco and G4S. In this, the company told how winning that deal had helped push its revenues up 13% year-on-year to £982.6 million. Capitalism, What is it and how can we destroy it. Until the 1980s, “social housing” was very largely the responsibility of elected Local Authorities. Housing provision for asylum-seekers was privatised nationwide by the Tories in 2012. Value: £500m. (See Chapter 5 of our book The UK Border Regime for much more on the asylum housing and “dispersal” systems.). Value: £800m. Email: contact[at]corporatewatch.org Mears Group PLC 1390 Montpellier Court Gloucester Business Park Brockworth Gloucester GL3 4AH Published from its offices at 200 Renfield Street Glasgow and printed in Scotland by Newsquest (Herald & Times) a division of Newsquest Media Group Ltd, registered in England & Wales with number 01676637 at Loudwater Mill, Station Road, High Wycombe HP10 9TY – a Gannett company. The content of this website is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. Contact Us. From 2012 to September 2019 the Department provided these services through six regional contracts, known as COMPASS. Tenants' union Living Rent delivered letters yesterday to a number of Glasgow-based RSLs with a list of actions to put pressure on Mears Group and Serco in order to prevent the eviction of 300 people. 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. (replace [at] with @) 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. Email: mearsliving@mearsgroup.co.uk Sources: contract values and specifications from tender announcement on European TED database; winners announced on Home Office website, 8 January 2019. Investigating Companies: A Do-It-Yourself Handbook. About 20 women, who are either pregnant or have babies or toddlers under two-years-old, have been moved into the new mother and baby unit, run by asylum accommodation provider Mears Group , in recent weeks. The contracts are for ten years. Migrant Help will earn between £10 million and £20 million a year from the deal, which will initially run for four years from September, but can be extended for up to ten years. For more information or to apply visit: https://mearsgroup.wd3.myworkdayjobs.com/External_Career_S…/ and enter the job reference number in the search bar or email tom.noble@mearsgroup.co.uk. A new company will be responsible for housing Teesside's 1,500 asylum seekers. 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 … Gloucestershire. c/o Freedom Press Will Mears do a better job than its predecessors? Value (over 10 years, estimated at start of contract): £800m. GL3 4AH. More on this story Young people experiencing more bullying online, says report Council housing was not just owned and managed by Local Authorities, but maintained an… Previously, asylum housing was provided by a range of landlords including local authorities. 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 fruit or sanitary products. Contact Us Today | Mears | A Quanta Services Company | Choose Recipient | First Name | Last Name | Email | Phone Number | Message | Help Us South of England. Mears has been awarded three new government contracts to provide accommodation and support for asylum seekers. Gloucester Business Park. Value: £300m. Winner: Serco. If you have have any information on the company, please get in touch! Mears Group have a £1.15 billion Home Office contract to run asylum accommodation. A Gannett Company. # NCW2021 # Careers # Recruitment # ApplyNow # Vacancy # Newjob Do you have information about a company you’d like to share with us? Copyright © Mears Group PLC. It remains to be seen whether Mears will do things any better than its competitors in the business. A CHARITY supporting asylum seekers in Glasgow is raising concerns about a “massive spike” in the number of housing complaints made since Mears Group has taken over the housing contract from Serco. London, E1 7QX, United Kingdom Migrant Help will earn between £10 million and £20 million a year from the deal, which will initially run for four … 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. Get in touch with your requests. Refugees are scattered around the UK into the cheapest possible housing, sub-contracted to local landlords by the corporations who win the main government contracts. Winner: Mears Group. Mears Group PLC 1390 Montpellier Court Gloucester Business Park Brockworth Gloucester GL3 4AH Serco, though out of Scotland, has kept its contract for North West England, and will also take over from G4S in the Midlands and East of England. Multinational company Serco lost its Home Office contract in September but is still involved in the eviction of dozens of refused asylum seekers. This will include identifying support needs, managing community cohesion issues, and developing strong partnerships with local authorities and in communities. Wales. 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. The number of accommodated asylum seekers has more than doubled since 2012, to around 48,000 in March 2020, but has been relatively stable since the beginning of 2019. 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. We are planning to publish a new company profile of Mears very soon. North East, Yorkshire and the Humber. Asylum seekers were moved into hotels from flats back in March by the Home Office’s outsourced accommodation provider Mears Group, as part of Covid-19 planning. All rights reserved. We can also offer a repairs and maintenance service to landlords, giving you the comfort that your property will be kept safe and in good order. The contracts are to provide accommodation as well as supporting each service user. It also has a home care division – we have looked at the company before as one of the UK’s main home care profiteers. Mears Group PLC 1390 Montpellier Court Gloucester Business Park Brockworth Gloucester GL3 4AH Mears will establish operational teams in each of the areas for which we are responsible so that we are in a position to provide the best possible performance, within the terms of the contract. Value: £50m. 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. Social housing specialist Mears Group PLC has been handed contracts worth £1bn from the UK government. Use our secure contact form here. Altogether, Serco is now the biggest asylum landlord, with contracts worth £1.7 billion. The AIRE advice contract also involves advising refugees on what do if their claims are refused. Corporate Watch You can contact the Partnership Team via email compass.partnership@serco.com Employee Partnership Forum in AASC The Employee Partnership Forum (EPF) ensure that all staff are well informed about matters that directly relate to them and that they also have the opportunity to communicate their views in an open forum. Value: £900m. Mears has been awarded contracts for Scotland, Northern Ireland and the North East, Yorkshire and the Humber. Angel Alley, 84b Whitechapel High Street Is there a company you think we should be looking into? That specifically includes telling them about “the support available to return to their country of origin.” The Home Office has a clear focus on pushing people to leave through so-called “voluntary return”, and will see Migrant Help as playing an important role in meeting its “removal” targets. The new round of contracts have a new name, AASC (Asylum Accommodation and Support Contract), and seven instead of six regions – Scotland and Northern Ireland have been split into separate deals. 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. Gloucester. Like G4S, Serco, Capita and other well-known “outsourcing” corporations, Mears Group has grown from the ongoing privatisation of public services. When Mears took over the contract from G4S, we and asylum tenants assumed it couldn’t get any worse. This approach was set up in 2012, when six regional deals named “COMPASS” went to three companies: G4S, Serco, and Clearsprings Ready Homes. 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. Mears is committed to ensuring that asylum accommodation is safe, habitable and fit for purpose and will meet all contractual and regulatory standards. Mears Group has moved around 500 asylum seekers into city hotels, claiming that it was a necessary measure because of problems securing lets during the lockdown. Update: see our new company profile of Mears Group here. Encrypted Contact Form Mears Group PLC 1390 Montpellier Court Gloucester Business Park Brockworth Gloucester GL3 4AH Northern Ireland. 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. Call Asylum Support Application UK if you’re an asylum seeker and can’t support yourself financially and want to apply for asylum support. In January 2019, it was announced that Mears Group would take over a Home Office contract to provide housing for asylum seekers in Glasgow from Serco. Address: Innova House Innova Park Kinetic Crescent Enfield London EN3 7XH. But otherwise the basic structure of centralisation and privatisation is the same. North West England. Winner: Mears Group. Housing associations have responded to calls for them to take action against the private housing contractors providing accommodation for asylum seekers in Glasgow. 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. We believe Mears should be removed from it now. We will immediately start work on the Mobilisation so that we are ready to meet the needs of asylum seekers and their host communities”. Tel: +44 (0)207 426 0005 ALL asylum seekers have been moved out of the Glasgow hotel that was the scene of a bloody knife attack on Friday. 17 were here. Asylum Support Application UK Telephone: 0808 801 0503 If you would like to find out more or to get a full property appraisal contact us at angela.mclachlan@mearsgroup.co.uk or visit https://www.mearsgroup.info/edinburghlandlords. You can contact … Asylum seeking women with babies in Glasgow have spoken out about stressful conditions after being moved from flats into cramped bedsits by Home Office accommodation provider, Mears Group. The Home Office has awarded New Asylum Accommodation and Support Services Contracts (AASC) following an open and fair procurement exercise. Winner: Serco. In Yorkshire and the North East, it is replacing G4S – whose asylum housing is notorious for squalor, infestations, and the scandal when racist vigilantes attacked homes whose doors had been painted an identical red colour. Clearsprings Ready Homes holds onto its smaller contracts in Wales and the South of England. G4S, still suffering from attention on brutality in its Brook House detention centre, has now lost all its asylum housing contracts. Download PGP Key. The incident took place around one month after Mears Group, which has a ten-year contract for the provision of asylum seeker accommodation in Scotland, released its latest annual report. Meals have been provided but all financial support, worth £5 a day, was terminated. If you’ve been affected by the issues in this article, you can contact Breathing Space on 0800 83 85 87 or visit the charity’s website. Winner: Clearsprings Ready Homes. This is the official facebook page for Mears Group. Group VAT registration number 872070825 FCA Registration number 559082. He was 30 years old, from Syria. In January 2020 it announced that it was to sell its domiciliary care division which employed 1,500 people across 18 branches in England and Wales and 1,000 people across 16 branches in Scotland. Mears is a much smaller company than either of those, and has no previous experience in asylum housing. In the era of Covid 19 we could have been wrong. It will be the official point of contact for refugees to get advice on their asylum claims, and will also work with Mears and the other accommodation providers. Winner: Clearsprings Ready Homes. The UK’s asylum housing system has become notorious for its slum conditions. Adnan Olbeh was found dead on 5 May 2020 in a Glasgow hotel where he had been placed by Mears Group under its management of the UK’s “asylum dispersal” scheme. Mears Group PLC (Head Office) 1390 Montpellier Court. It has already been doing similar work for the Home Office since 2014. Mears works closely with the Scottish Refugee Council and a range of NGOs supporting and advocating for Asylum Seekers in Glasgow.” Responding to ASH’s points, Mears said: “Regards testimony given to ASH about notice, most service users had around 48 hours notice, appropriate transport was arranged and social distancing arrangements were in place for the moves.” view Mears Group PLC Mears bags £1bn asylum housing contract ... Company Registration number 05639690. Value: £600m. The councillors have now made it their official policy to take asylum housing back in-house, just four months into their contract with private-sector profiteer Mears Group. It will be the official point of contact for refugees to get advice on their asylum claims, and will also work with Mears and the other accommodation providers.