MK City Council award Mears with council house repair contract

Milton Keynes City Council have awarded the Mears Group with a contract for council house repairs in the city.

Following a procurement exercise involving tenants and leaseholders, Mears has been awarded a five-year contract to repair and maintain 12,000 Milton Keynes City Council homes, with the option for a five-year extension. 

The new contract will start on 4 August. Before the start of this partnership, the city council and Mears will be running sessions with residents where they can meet the team and ask questions. 

The city council began the search for a contractor early last year and has asked all tenants and leaseholders for feedback on what changes to the contract would improve their experience.

MK City Council said the new contract was designed around the goal of achieving several improvements, including greater contractual focus on getting repairs done right first time, and a new 14-day priority repair to make sure repeat jobs are done quicker – between emergency repairs (4-24hrs) and routine repairs (within 28 days).

The council also stated they aimed to achieve stronger contract management oversight of how works and services are done, with robust performance management and aligning how the works and services are done to the new regulatory requirements for council homes. 

Cabinet Member responsible for housing, Cllr Ed Hume, said, “The new contract gives us an opportunity to overhaul how we monitor repairs and maintenance of council homes and to ensure tenants are getting a fair and responsive service, and more ‘right first time’ repairs.

“In 2025/26 we’re planning to invest nearly £90m in bringing more council properties up to a better standard; installing kitchens, fire doors and energy saving measures to make sure tenants have a good quality, affordable home where heating bills can be managed.”