A Kent prison has completed a new 247-place houseblock as the government expands England and Wales’s prison estate amid continuing pressure on capacity.

The new block at HMP Elmley, on the Isle of Sheppey, is expected to receive its first prisoners in the coming weeks. The Ministry of Justice says it forms part of a £4.7bn programme to create 14,000 additional prison places by 2031.

Catherine McKinnell, the prisons, probation and reoffending minister, said the new houseblock would provide space for dangerous offenders while supporting rehabilitation.

‘We inherited prisons on the brink of collapse,’ she said, arguing that the government’s building programme would ensure sufficient capacity for the future.

The department said prison capacity had increased by only 500 net places in the 14 years to July 2024. It said around 3,300 additional places had been delivered since July 2024, as ministers work towards their 2031 target.

The government is also bringing forward £110m to speed up the creation of hundreds of places, including by converting existing buildings and unused areas such as offices, laundries and storage rooms into cells.

HMP Elmley was last inspected in early 2025, with the prisons watchdog reporting that leaders there ‘struggled to stem the ingress of illicit drugs’, and a positive drug test rate of 29%. Over 60% of prisoners said they had felt unsafe during their time at Elmley, including because of the impact of drug availability on debt, bullying and violence.

The new spaces in Kent follow the building of a brand new prison, HMP Millsike, which opened ‘chaotically’ in April 2025. Speaking following its first inspection report, Andrea Coomber KC, Chief Executive of the Howard League for Penal Reform, said: ‘Only a couple of days after the government proudly announced plans to buy more land for prisons, and to build them more quickly, this astonishing report reveals how a desperate search for extra places can jeopardise the safety of people living and working behind bars.’ 

Describing the new prison she said: ‘What ministers saw as part of the solution has now, with grim inevitability, become part of the problem – a chaotic jail with cells left empty because there aren’t enough staff to run it safely.’