Kingston Council has approved plans to build a children's home on Chamberlain Way as part of a £2.8million scheme.

The plans were submitted in January and the new home will help the council to meet increasing demand for placements in Kingston, so that more children can stay in the borough instead of being moved further away from their community.

It will save the authority money as the lack of placements locally is making the available options more expensive.

A report by council officers revealed demand for children's home places has risen by 14 per cent over the last four years.

It said: "The council faces rising pressures to provide residential accommodation to children and young people under its statutory duties and has borne substantial increases in the associated costs of doing so.

"Accordingly, the council has had a long-standing ambition to develop its own children's home within the borough which will provide high quality accommodation for young people much closer to their own homes.

"This is anticipated to result in better outcomes for the individual children and young people and a reduced cost pressure on the council."

The new home will be a sister home to Hope House, a five-bed residential home in Richmond which opened in September 2020 and will house three children in separate bedrooms for short and long-term stays.

It will also have overnight accommodation for two members of staff, social spaces, an office and a garden with sensory areas.

It will be run by Achieving for Children (AfC) on the council's behalf.

The site of the new home will replace two empty council homes and work will start this month with an aim to open the home in 2026.

The new home will be located at 17-19 Chamberlain Way in Surbiton (Sketch taken from planning application)

The council's People Committee unanimously agreed to award the construction contract for the project to an unnamed firm on Tuesday, 11 March.

Kingston Council Leader Andreas Kirsch said: "This is such an important project. It looks like it's small in some way, but it's really important for us.

"We need more provision in our borough in regards to children's homes, so this is really beneficial for us and our children to build a home in our borough so it means we have more provision close to where people really live and where their communities are and friends and everything.

"We don't need to place them somewhere else which makes their life even more complicated."