PRISONERS are set to help build new council homes in Essex as part of a new scheme. The initiative in Epping Forest where prisoners develop out of use garages into council homes is set to be the first scheme of its kind in Essex reports the Local Democracy Reporter.

The Prisoners Building Homes building initiative for the site on Princesfield Road in Waltham Abbey would see around 10 garages replaced with modular pre-fabricated homes constructed by low-risk prisoners or prisoners on probation, either in prison workshops or modular factories.

The site could accommodate either three houses or two bungalows, Epping Forest District Council has said. It adds that all participants in the scheme are extensively vetted and then are recruited through a competitive application and interview process.

The prisoners on day release who work on-site are assessed as low risk, most are in open prisons and are approaching the end of their sentence. They are paid starting at the living-wage.

The council adds that 92 per cent of prisoners who have work in this initiative elsewhere in the country have secured employment post release in construction. Prisoners involved in this scheme have a reoffending rate of less than five per cent against the national average of 35 per cent.

Housing portfolio holder Councillor Smruti Patel told a Communities Scrutiny Committee meeting on December 16: “This allows the council to expand its pipeline of development sites and reassess sites that were previously unviable.

“This program unlocks small and challenging development sites, enables faster, lower cost housing delivery through modular construction, creates significant social value through employment, rehabilitation and victim support funding.

“It aligns with the council’s housing, climate and community safety priorities and officers’ access to PBH pre-development funding to de-risk schemes as well. So, there’s a lot of benefits with this policy that we’ve got coming to us and I look forward to seeing how it all pans out.”

The council says that using the prisoner building scheme it just means that the cost to it are kept low because they will undertake the assessments um and and look at the feasibility of different sites. The final decision to proceed with the scheme will be taken by cabinet at a later date.