Mears denies ‘massaging’ figures as inquiry opens

The Housing Corporation is investigating claims that a repair firm provided false performance figures to a housing association.

A BBC radio documentary, broadcast on 5 Live this month, accused Mears, a social housing maintenance company, of “massaging important figures” over tenant satisfaction on work it carried out for the Family Mosaic Housing Association in Hackney, east London.

A former Mears employee said the figures were not based on a random sample of tenants as required, but instead “weeded out” difficult residents.

Mears denied the allegations, saying they had been made by a disgruntled former worker who had been sacked for gross misconduct.

Alan Long, the development director of Mears, said: “The allegations are fake. This has all come from an ex-employee who doesn’t like us very much.”

This all comes from an ex-employee who doesn’t like us very much

Alan Long, Mears

He added that he was confident that an independent investigation by the Housing Corporation, which is due to be completed in the next few weeks, would clear the firm of any wrongdoing.

Clare Miller, director of regulation at the Housing Corporation, said: “We take tenant satisfaction extremely seriously, and always investigate any significant allegations brought to our attention.”

Mears is responsible for maintaining 7,000 homes for Family Mosaic.

A spokesperson for Family Mosaic said Mears’ results were in line with their own findings. It said: “In addition to information given to us by Mears we carry out three other independent methods of measuring performance. These support the conclusion of the information we get from Mears.”