Extra places for nearly 1,000 inmates will be created in a £200m building programme.

This will involve building new houseblocks at HMPs Guys Marsh near Shatfsbury (180 places);  Rye Hill in Rugby (462 places); Stocken in Rutland (206 places).  HMP High Down near Sutton in Surrey will get a new workshop freeing up space for 90 extra places.

Planning permission is being sought for works to begin, and the first prisoners are expected to arrive from Winter 2022 at Rye Hill jail, and throughout 2023 at the remaining sites.

Prisons Minister, Lucy Frazer QC MP, said: “This significant step in our plan to transform the prison estate shows the government’s intention to invest in infrastructure, create jobs and to build back better for this country.

“The new houseblocks will provide modern environments where we can effectively rehabilitate offenders and steer them away from crime.”

The buildings are another major step in the £2.5bn programme to create 10,000 extra prison places.

This will see four new prisons built in England over the next six years.

A new jail will be constructed at HMP Full Sutton, in East Yorkshire, and work is underway to identify a site in the North West of England and two in the South East.

In addition to the four new prisons, Kier is presently building HMP Five Wells, the new jail at Wellingborough in Northamptonshire, and Lendlease has started early works at Glen Parva, Leicestershire, to create two new 1,680-place category C resettlement prisons.