Her Majesty’s Prison Service has appointed Lambert Smith Hampton to advise on the expansion of its £5.5bn estate.
LSH beat CBRE, Chesterton, DTZ and Knight Frank to win the contract, covering site acquisitions and disposals, planning and estate management in England and Wales for the next three years.
Following a funding boost announced by home secretary David Blunkett last month, the prison service plans to spend £300m on its estate in 2005/06 – including buying new sites for prisons and non-custodial facilities – such as administrative offices and staff quarters.
It is also planning to use its existing landbank and will refurbish, upgrade and expand existing jails. The estate includes 130 prisons, excluding privately owned facilities.
Any new prisons are likely to be built through PFI.
The prison service previously kept most of its property work inhouse. LSH chairman Mark Rigby said an external adviser was needed to help the prison service enter “a significant period of change in the way it runs its property portfolio”.
The contract will be run by head of development David Bianco and director of property management Tony Francis.
Blunkett announced a £320m, or 8.4%, increase in prison service funding for 2005/06 last month. This includes cash to create 1,300 extra prison places, on top of the 2,400 due to be added over the next 18 months.
According to the Prison Reform Trust, over the past 12 months prison overcrowding has been at its highest recorded level. At the end of May, over 65% of prisons around the country were overcrowded.
