Russet Homes appoints new £14.5 million five year contract with Mears

Homes has awarded Mears a five year contract worth £14.5 million to provide its day to day maintenance as well as repairs and improvement work for voids from the beginning of July.

Part of Circle Anglia – a leading provider of affordable housing in the UK - Russet Homes owns and manages around 6,600 properties, including 11 sheltered housing schemes, mainly in the borough of Tonbridge and Malling.

Keith Andrews, MD for Russet Homes said: “Partnership working has achieved significant improvements in service delivery for tenants, in particular in overall satisfaction with the service and better reliability in keeping appointments. The new partnership with Mears, initially for 5 years but potentially lasting 10 years, will help us build on that success”.

Mears is the leading social housing repairs and maintenance provider in the UK employing more than 3000 staff and carrying out 3,500 repairs each day to 500,000 homes nationwide.

Mr Andrews added: “Being a major player brings the benefit of economies of scale and tried and tested experience of working in communities as diverse as inner city estates and remote rural villages. They are successful in combining this with a strong local focus – the intention is to operate from premises locally with a team of dedicated staff”.

“We already work hard to involve our residents at every level so we welcome the fact Mears has an excellent reputation for customer care and resident participation in decision making. Our tenant Portfolio Holder for Asset Management and members of our Tenant Repairs User Group have been closely involved in the tendering and contractor selection processes and will be similarly influential in the important period ahead as the new service takes shape.”

Hugh McCormack, Regional Director for Mears, said: “Mears are delighted to have been given the opportunity to work in partnership with Russet Homes to develop and deliver an excellent repairs service for their residents. Mears have an excellent reputation within Circle Anglia and have consistently demonstrated high levels of resident satisfaction with excellent performance results. Over the last year, Mears have been working closely with a number of partners within the Circle Anglia group, and have developed service improvement initiatives such as enhanced appointment systems and working towards tailoring the repairs services around the needs of the residents”.

“Mears has a really positive ethos on customer care and believe this area is key to the success of the services being delivered. Resident perception of the services they are receiving is invaluable to understanding and providing service excellence. We welcome the opportunity to work closely with Russet Homes residents and staff in realising our ambitions for the future of the repairs service.”