diff --git a/lib/workers/repository/init/merge.ts b/lib/workers/repository/init/merge.ts
index a87b7763879bdc..d7b3a52ab0a6ba 100644
--- a/lib/workers/repository/init/merge.ts
+++ b/lib/workers/repository/init/merge.ts
@@ -83,7 +83,7 @@ export async function detectRepoFileConfig(): Promise<RepoFileConfig> {
     }
     logger.debug({ config: configFileParsed }, 'package.json>renovate config');
   } else {
-    configFileRaw = (await readLocalFile(configFileName, 'utf8'));
+    configFileRaw = await readLocalFile(configFileName, 'utf8');
     // istanbul ignore if
     if (!is.string(configFileRaw)) {
       logger.warn({ configFileName }, 'Null contents when reading config file');
diff --git a/lib/workers/repository/init/types.ts b/lib/workers/repository/init/types.ts
index 1b255f7b7d0771..ebd6a8731378d9 100644
--- a/lib/workers/repository/init/types.ts
+++ b/lib/workers/repository/init/types.ts
@@ -5,7 +5,7 @@ export interface RepoConfigError {
 
 export interface RepoFileConfig {
   configFileName?: string;
-  configFileRaw?: string;
+  configFileRaw?: string | null;
   configFileParsed?: any;
   configFileParseError?: RepoConfigError;
 }