Deal being let under government’s £1bn new prisons programme

ISG is set to build the next prison under the government’s new prisons programme with the firm lined up for a £300m deal at a site in Buckinghamshire.

The new category C “resettlement” jail would be built next to the existing category B Grendon and category D Springhill prisons and cover up to 67,000 sq m.

The 1,440 place category C prison will include six houseblocks, four storeys in height and each housing 240 prisoners. Springhill and Grendon prisons currently hold 500 inmates each.

grendon

The new prison will be built next to the existing Springhill and Grendon prisons

Along with Kier, Laing O’Rourke and Wates, ISG is one of four firms appointed to the £1bn New Prisons Programme which is intended to create 6,000 new places.

The scheme to build four new prisons for the Ministry of Justice is one of the first major capital projects outside of infrastructure to use an alliance model, where multiple main contractors collaborate on a single job.

>>> See also: The power of four: how UK’s biggest builders are working together on £1bn prisons programme

Kier has been building HMP Millsike near York which is due to open next year while Wates will build a new category B at HMP Gartree in Leicestershire for £300m.

ISG, which recently recruited Paul Gransby from Lendlease where he was a project director on the 8 Bishopsgate tower in the City as an operations director, is expected to start preparatory work soon with main work beginning in earnest towards the end of the year.

Kier built the first prison to be built under the new prisons programme – the £250m category C prison at Five Wells in Northamptonshire which was completed two years ago. Lendlease built the £300m HMP Fosse Way which was built under the Ministry of Justice’s estates transformation programme and which was completed last summer.

Last year, Kier, Laing O’Rourke and Wates landed a £225m Ministry of Justice contract to build an additional 1,200 prison places across the UK.

The deal is separate from the existing new prisons programme but will use a similar standardised design and construction approach.

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