ISG scoops £61m Birmingham prison refurb

ISG has been appointed to refurbish hundreds of cells at a major prison – to bring them back into use.

The £61m contract involves ISG refurbishing 300 single prison cells at HMP Birmingham so that they can be used again, and is part of the Ministry of Justice’s (MoJ) bumper prison modernisation scheme. Worth £3.8bn, the scheme is set to create 20,000 new prison places across the UK.

The contractor said it was the “single largest refurbishment project [it had scooped] to date”.

ISG already has a construction skills academy at the Birmingham prison, where prisoners close to their release can acquire skills.

ISG also recently scooped spots on two lots of the MoJ’s £2.5bn constructor services framework. The firm is set to work on regional projects in Wales, as well as major projects procured through the framework’s nationwide lot.

Meanwhile, modular builder Algeco has secured a £21.9m contract to supply units to HMP Norwich in Norfolk.

The Peterborough-based firm will supply the prison with 396 units developed offsite using design for manufacturing and assembly (DfMA) techniques. Algeco snapped up the job via the £10bn offsite construction solutions framework run by the Crown Commercial Service, which it won a spot on last month. Kier and Laing O’Rourke were also named on the framework.

In 2021, the MoJ named ISG as one of the four major contractors to work on four new prisons. Although Kier has already been named as the contractor on HMP Full Sutton in Yorkshire, and Galliford Try has scooped a £95m prison-expansion job in Warwickshire, the MoJ is yet to announce whether ISG will work on a site in Buckinghamshire or in the South East.

Construction News revealed last summer that Lendlease was the contractor with which the Ministry of Justice had spent most money in the previous financial year.