Boss of firm making bumper profits housing migrants in hotels owns string of swanky homes
THE boss of a company making bumper profits housing migrants in hotels owns a string of swanky homes, The Sun on Sunday found.
Mears group CEO David Miles, 57, has a £2million mansion in the South West, a multi-million-pound West End London bolthole and a country house in Kent.
His company’s profits soared thanks to three Home Office contracts worth more than £1billion in total.
The company took on the Asylum Accommodation and Support Services Contracts to arrange ‘accommodation, transport and service user support’ for asylum seekers.
They run hotels and other accommodation for Scotland, Northern Ireland, and the North East.
Their most recent annual report revealed pre-tax profits increased from £8m in 2020 to £21.3m in 2021.
Its annual report attributed this to the resumption of maintenance services after the pandemic, but it also said that the part of the business that deals with the ‘AASC’ had performed well.
The company said revenues in that division were up 24 per cent year-on-year “primarily as a result of the elevated AASC revenue.”
The Sun on Sunday can reveal Mr Miles owns a swanky pad in Marylebone, just a short walk away from Regents Park.
The flat is “in an attractive purpose built block with live-in porterage on London’s only Parisian style boulevard” according to estate agents listings.
And he also owns a five bedroom home in leafy Kent which neighbours said he “occasionally visits.”
The executive also owns a large listed country house on the outskirts of Devon.
Insiders in the company insisted company profits were capped for Home Office contracts.
They also said executive pay had not changed since the government contracts were awarded in 2019.
A Mears spokesperson said: “Our profits are up after resuming maintenance services post pandemic.
“Profits on the provision of asylum accommodation and support are capped by the Home Office and our margin is small.”
Tonight Tory MP Scott Benton said: “People are sick and tired of the cost of using these hotels and this just adds insult to injury.”