Kier wins £250m prison expansion contracts

Kier has secured main contracts worth around £250m to expand prison capacity at HMP Northumberland and HMP Lancaster Farms under the Ministry of Justice’s (MoJ’s) Small Secure Houseblocks Programme (SSHP).

The contractor will deliver four new houseblocks, site-wide infrastructure and upgrades to ancillary facilities at each prison.

Completion is due by early 2027.

The two new jobs forms part of the wider SSHP Alliance framework, which aims to deliver additional prison places across England.

Kier’s latest awards take the contractor’s total number of houseblocks being delivered for the MoJ and the Scottish Prison Service to 30.

The firm was awarded a pre-construction services agreement for Lancaster Farms (pictured) in February this year, a company spokesperson confirmed to Construction News.

It is also currently delivering extensions at HMPs Elmley, Bullingdon and Channings Wood.

Rebecca Boundy, managing director for justice at Kier Construction, said the firm was “working in alliance with our partners to focus on repeatability and continuous improvement” in a bid to improve delivery and reduce lifecycle costs.

Kier also confirmed that 29 prisoners at Channings Wood had graduated from its Hard Hat Ready training course, run as part of its Making Ground rehabilitation initiative.

Over the past three years, it said, 75 prison leavers have been employed through the programme with 64 placements offered to prisoners released on temporary licence.

Source: Kier announcement