A groundbreaking ceremony has been held at a military base in Warwickshire to mark the start of construction of a new £13m Single Living Accommodation block.

The block at Defence Munitions Kineton, which will include 46 bedrooms for officers and Senior Non-Commissioned Officers based at the site, will be constructed by Algeco on behalf of VIVO, the Defence Infrastructure Organisation's (DIO) built estate contractor.  

Representatives from DM Kineton, DIO, Algeco and VIVO took part in the groundbreaking ceremony for the new building, which is expected to be finished next spring.

Two of the bedrooms will be fully accessible and all are en-suite.

The building also includes kitchenettes, communal spaces, laundry rooms, utility rooms and a cycle store.

The building will have solar panels on the roof to supply some of the energy needed to run the block and new trees will be planted as part of landscaping work.

The boot washing stations will use recycled water from the sinks and the building will be heated by air source heat pumps.  

The construction process will be modular, using pre-built sections constructed in a factory, many of which have already been built.

These are then transported to site and assembled in situ being externally finished and connected to services such as water and power, which are being extended to reach the new building.

This method is faster than traditional construction and reduces the disruption on site.  

Richard Walsh, DIO's Project Delivery Manager, said:  "It's exciting to reach this milestone after all the hard work needed to prepare any project of this scale.

"The new building replaces aging accommodation which needed significant upgrade work.

"That would have been more expensive than constructing the new building so it was an easy choice to provide DM Kineton's personnel with a brand-new building instead!"