Building blocks for ex-offenders providing hope for the homeless

• Six prisoners from Leyhill Open Prison are the first to be given the chance of a fresh start thanks to a scheme building environmentally friendly relocatable homes
• The six are taking part in an innovative scheme which employs prisoners to construct environmentally-friendly housing and has been described as a ‘game-changer’ by a former inmate and a ‘triple win’ by Justice Secretary Alex Chalk.
• The plan to build the so-called ‘eco-pods’ involving prisoners put together by the South West Reoffending Partnership with support from the region’s five police and crime commissioners and construction company MMC Homebuilding
• The project is on course to build 82 across the country
• PCC for Gloucestershire Chris Nelson said, “The ‘Prisoners Building Homes (PBH) Programme’ is a win, win, win for everyone as it reduces reoffending, gives skill-sets to prisoners and reduces crime”.

Six prisoners from HMP Leyhill are the first to ‘qualify’ through a scheme which offers an introduction to a career in the construction industry and a way out of crime.

The six are taking part in an innovative scheme which employs prisoners to construct environmentally-friendly housing and has been described as a ‘game-changer’ by a former inmate and a ‘triple win’ by Justice Secretary Alex Chalk.

The nationally accredited training course was delivered by Betaris training and enabled by MMC Homebuilding, an employer working with ex-offenders and offenders from Leyhill, and is supported by all five regional Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs).

The training course is about providing skills to prisoners to enable them to get employment and turn their lives around whilst supporting landowners to deliver affordable housing. PBH links housebuilders and prisons and brings underutilised sites into use for affordable housing.

One prisoner said, “This project is great for getting prisoners used to a day’s work, teamwork, working on your own initiative and also picking up new skills. I’m really confident that when I come out after this sentence I will make a success of my life.”

Another prisoner involved in the scheme said “To be able to come somewhere like here, where they give you an opportunity and a chance, it really allows people to flourish”.

PBH started out as a pilot scheme in South West England. Funded by five Police and Crime Commissioners and the One Public Estate programme, which is managed by the Cabinet Office, the Local Government Association, and the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, PBH is working with housebuilders to employ prisoners across the country and is on track to deliver 82 homes this year.

Through partnership with private sector companies and landowners such as councils and churches, prisoners and recent prison leavers learn skills and get paid for their labour, so on release they are employable and can provide for themselves and their families. The award-winning programme is now seeking new sites where there is a desire to deliver affordable, quality, low carbon, sustainable homes which typically are allocated to those most in need of housing.

Alex Chalk KC MP, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, visited a factory (MMC Homebuilding – one of the companies working with the programme) in Gloucestershire recently, where modular homes were being constructed. In a video created to support the programme he praised it for offering a creative solution to tackling reoffending.

“Reoffending costs our country £20bn a year and devastates lives,” he said.

“Prisoners who get to do this learn skills that will ultimately ensure that they can have that hope, that sense of a future and a stake in society once again, and, of course, they’re producing homes, so this is a triple win.

“It’s good for homes, it’s good for society and it’s good for our country.”

The modular pods are built by the prisoners in a factory near Gloucester, then taken on a lorry to the location.

Using funding from the One Public Estate programme a development framework was rolled out across the region in 2023 and is now being implemented across the country. The Programme is now exploring a new sustainable model with central government to reach across the UK. It will help to roll out the scheme and enable other public sector organisations to easily access modular housing providers, develop a pipeline of public-sector sites for housing and identify further prison support methods across the South West to assemble and construct the homes.

Gloucestershire PCC Chris Nelson said, “Homelessness is rising and seems to be getting worse. So the ‘Prisoners Building Homes Programme’ is a win, win, win for everyone as it reduces reoffending, gives skill-sets to prisoners and reduces crime.

“These pods are highly affordable and could be used to house those most in need. They are easy to relocate and offer high energy efficiency to reduce energy bills for the occupants, with the potential not only to provide homes for those leaving prison, but for anyone requiring affordable and accessible accommodation”.

The PBH is currently on track to deliver 82 homes this year.

The Lord Bishop of Gloucester and Anglican Bishop to HM Prisons, the Rt Revd Rachel Treweek, said: “This project is a wonderful and creative way of giving some of the most vulnerable people in society a chance at a fresh start.

“Living pods have the potential not only to provide homes for those leaving prison but for those most in need requiring affordable housing.” 

Watch the homes under construction at: https://youtu.be/CHRiippQMvA