The plan is part of the Government’s new prisons programme which was announced by the Prime Minister last summer.

The Government has committed over £4bn capital funding to accommodate up to 18,000 additional inmates across the prison estate by the mid-2020s.

The Ministry of Justice has just published its proposals and gone out to local community consultation with Mace supporting the project.

It is the second of four planned new prisons with the first to be built at Full Sutton, in East Yorkshire. This already has planning permission for a similar size complex of houseblocks with Mace also onboard as construction adviser.

Work at Full Sutton is expected to start next year.

Plans for the Buckinghamshire prison are less advanced. If the MoJ decides to go ahead it will submit a planning application to Buckinghamshire Council early in 2021.

Construction would start, subject to planning, in 2022/23 with the aim to open the new prison in 2025.

Proposals for the Category C resettlement prison next to HMP Springhill include building six houseblocks with supporting facilities such as kitchen workshops and a central services hub.

Each houseblock would be four storeys in height and house 240 prisoners.

The Ministry of Justice is seeking to make these new prisons the most sustainable in the prison estate achieving BREEAM Excellent ratings as a minimum.

Ahead of starting construction for the new prison, the demolition of the existing education block associated with HMP Springhill prison is required and a new sports pitch will be installed to serve the existing prison.

Area plan for new category c prison

Both the relocated education block and a new sports pitch will be replaced and most of the area of woodland in the north western corner of the site will be retained as part of the proposals.