1 As part of its May 2004 benefits submission, the Home Office compared the cost of building and operating Bicester with the capital costs of three prisons. To arrive at the construction cost, the Home Office stripped out the land acquisition cost, value added tax (VAT) at 17.5 per cent and contractor costs (see Figure 12).
2 Next, it deducted an allowance of ten per cent for Bicester being the first of a planned network of accommodation centres. It also stripped out the cost of providing a hearing cost centre and the cost of constructing facilities for functions that would not be needed at a prison, such as case-working, reporting and child education, which it estimated would occupy 50 per cent of Bicester's main buildings (see Figure 13).
3 Assuming 750 bed spaces, the Home Office's adjusted capital cost per bed space for Bicester was £70,720. The Home Office compared the capital cost of a bed space at Bicester with a bed space at new prisons in Ashford, Peterborough and Belmarsh (see Figure 14). A bed space at Ashford and Peterborough prisons was less expensive, but Belmarsh was more expensive. Disregarding the First Movers Disadvantage allowance, a bed space at Bicester would cost £80,136.