Kier has bagged around £250m worth of contracts to expand HMP Northumberland and HMP Lancaster Farms, delivering 480 extra prison places under the Ministry of Justice’s Small Secure Houseblocks Programme (SSHP) Alliance.

Each site will get four new houseblocks, new site-wide infrastructure and upgrades to ancillary facilities, with completion due by early 2027.

The latest wins take Kier’s total to 30 houseblocks delivered for the MoJ and Scottish Prison Service in recent years, cementing its position as one of the UK’s leading justice sector contractors.

Kier has already delivered HMP Five Wells and HMP Millsike, and is currently expanding HMPs Elmley, Bullingdon and Channings Wood under the government’s £14bn prison capacity plan to create 14,000 new places by 2031.

Kier’s Making Ground scheme continues to deliver real outcomes, with 29 prisoners at HMP Channings Wood recently graduating from its ‘Hard Hat Ready’ training course.

Over the past three years, 75 prison leavers have secured jobs and 64 temporary licence placements have been created through the initiative.